


Destiny Diverted

by TheCrazyFriend



Series: Destiny [3]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:35:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24866932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCrazyFriend/pseuds/TheCrazyFriend
Summary: An alternate ending for Destiny's Date
Relationships: Barriss Offee/Ahsoka Tano, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Series: Destiny [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1737049
Comments: 20
Kudos: 9





	1. Part I: Destiny Subverted

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be a one-shot but it's taking far too long to write so here's the first part since I've finished!

Ahsoka Tano was surprised, to say the least, when, after she had slammed her white lightsabers into the ground of the top floor of the ancient Sith Temple on Malachor, she felt something or _someone_ yank her backward. Much to her amazement, she was still alive even after Vader had almost cleaved her head off and seeing an older Ezra Bridger was even more of a shock, at least until she looked around to see where she was and was met by the sight of an old friend, Morai. “I owe her my life, now I owe you the same” the Togruta had whispered to the young Jedi Padawan with a small smile. She had then been forced to watch yet another one of her peers fall at the hands of the Empire. She was relieved that Kanan Jarrus' death actually meant something, unlike the vast majority of deaths that had occurred years previously during Order Sixty-Six, the Clone Trooper directive that had directly ended the lives of so many of her peers and also marked one of the darkest times in the history of the galaxy, the time in which countless survivors of the initial purge were killed off for no reason other than them simply being Jedi, the sworn blood-enemies of the Sith. Luminara Unduli, who had been executed needlessly for the purported crime of treason. Her best friend Barriss Offee had effectively been executed long before the purge. Caleb Dume was indeed one of the lucky ones who had the chance to sacrifice himself for something bigger than himself and she had been robbed of her own opportunity to die meaningfully, until she realized something. “I can't come back with you!” She spoke while on the run, running from the Sith and his blue alchemic fire  
“Why not?” Ezra replied, worried and saddened  
“There’s something I have to take care of, now go!!” The Togruta pushed Ezra away and down the path that led to the portal he had arrived through

Ahsoka watched the boy disappear through a portal and back to Lothal while his feet continued pounding toward another portal, one Morai was leading her to. Without thinking, she hurled herself toward the portal and through it just as the alchemic flames reached and engulfed most of her body. She screamed in agony as she felt the fire burn through not only her skin, but her life force as well.

The Togruta flew through the air, the very wind currents caressing her scorched body before she slammed down upon the floor on the other side of the portal. “Karrabast” she groaned, the pain resulting in her losing consciousness for a moment.

*****

Ahsoka groaned from the remnants of the pain she had felt, she had opened her eyes and found herself in a familiar scene, almost a month after the conclusion of the whole terrifying series of events that she knew would scar her for the rest of her life, events that had been in the past but were suddenly in the future again. She knew she was dreaming as she had some recollection of the pain she had experienced before falling unconscious, but she also knew there was no way to alter what was coming, it hadn’t been the first time she had endured that particular dream. She had been on an errand for the sisters she was staying with, Trace and Rafa, when she caught sight of someone she had thought she wouldn't ever see again. _Barriss?_

The Mirialan in question was walking down one of the side streets toward Coco Town. Ahsoka hadn't ever expected to see the young Padawan again so she moved toward her, at the very minimum Ahsoka expected her fellow Padawan to spend what was arguably called her future, for it wasn't much of a future, behind bars. Once she had gotten closer, Ahsoka realized that Barriss was missing a number of her tattoos, her facial ones were all gone save three, the one on the center of her nose and the ones immediately adjacent and the ones on the back of her hands had been removed completely but it was definitely her, she could feel the other young woman's Force signature flowing through the bond they still shared yet... She had to pause to discern the meaning behind what she felt, Barriss’ Force signature felt _wrong_ to her, though only those who knew her well would notice. “Barriss??” she called out, loud enough for the other woman to hear, not that Ahsoka would've known if she had heard it since she didn't respond. “Barriss!!” Ahsoka cried out, snagging her old friend’s shoulder to slow her and get her attention

Just how wrong things were became apparent the moment Barriss’ hand shot to her belt to grab at a lightsaber that Ahsoka realized was missing before its owner did and even clearer the moment she pushed the Togruta away with a weakened blast with the Force once she figured out that she didn't have her weapon. “Don't touch me!!” She demanded, her tone calm, eyes watchful and cautious, but still somewhat seemingly in some kind of trance  
“Barriss?” Ahsoka breathed, “is it you?” she asked, the Force was telling her two different things at once, yes, it was her friend but also no, it wasn't.  
“Excuse me miss, but my name isn't Barriss, it's Juzia. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get going. I have to meet up with... A friend at a diner”  
_That's definitely Barriss, only she's that polite, even amongst Jedi. But what's she doing out of prison, why is she speaking like she's out on assignment?_ The confused and hurt Togruta was left behind by the dismissive Mirialan. _Barriss, what's happened to you?_ Ahsoka wouldn't find out the truth until a lot later, that the Jedi had done something cruel and unforgivable to someone who opposed them and, in repeating the same mistakes they had made with the very same person would turn their most promising Padawans against them, albeit years down the line in addition to vindicating both Ahsoka's desire to leave the Jedi because of what they had become and what Barriss had said upon the revelation that she was the mastermind behind the bombing.

The scene changed and Ahsoka was back on board a Jedi Cruiser in what was definitely one of the worst days of her life, the day of Order Sixty-Six, the day when everything around her came crashing down. The young woman felt a pain in her back and staggered forward mere moments after she heard remnants of the last remaining moments of Anakin Skywalker before he fell to the dark side; _what have I done?_ The familiar and comforting voice spoke, tinged with pain and regret. The pain felt similar to the pain she had felt the time she had been shot in the shoulder by a Separatist gunship and subsequently lost her grip on a friend, resulting in them falling to their doom only it was much, much worse. Panicked, the young woman had thrown herself into combat with the clones, successfully evading each and every single one of their shots and killing almost indiscriminately. The Togruta knew instinctively that it was only thanks to her bond with Anakin that she made it through those first few seconds alive and, along with Captain Rex, survived the Jedi Purge, one of only a mere handful of Force-sensitives to do so and that was something not even Anakin seemed to have managed to do, survive. Her bond with him was sheared off at Anakin's end, almost as if he couldn't bear for her to feel his last few moments. Her bond with Barriss was a different story though. Ever since she had spotted Barriss in Coco Town, the young former Jedi had been busy attempting to reconstruct the bond she had once shared with the terrorist, it had been slow going since Barriss was unwilling or unable to help reconstruct her end of the bond and therefore Ahsoka was doing most of the work on it in almost every free moment of time she had managed to scrounge up while helping her hosts and friends. Eventually, she had found the solution and had reopened the bond, Barriss having remained unaware of it since it had been forced into the other girl's subconscious by something. Ahsoka had been able to access Barriss' memories through the bond, but they were not the memories she remembered. The Mirialan had memories of both Battles of Geonosis, of Umbara, of the trip to Ord Cestus, of the Temple bombing but that were not Barriss' memories and had Barriss either in a different role, in the cases of the second battle of Geonosis and the battle over Umbara or as a mere bystander in the case of the bombing, where she was watching the most shocking events in the history of the Jedi unfold, the Jedi hunting and capturing a young Togruta and then the revelation of a green-skinned Mirialan as the true perpetrator, who was summarily executed within days of her confession. All memories of Ahsoka had been removed and even those with Luminara Unduli had been doctored though the elder Mirialan was still Barriss’ Master. Ahsoka had been reeling at the knowledge that the Jedi had, once again, dealt with a dissenter by removing their memories, just like what had happened with Barriss before regarding the bond she had made with Ahsoka, the bond they had later remade and the bond that only Ahsoka remained aware of.

From then on Ahsoka was far too busy trying to survive to give those thoughts much attention but she could still remember the burn of the blasters incinerating Barriss’ back and burning through to her chest as she fell on Felicia, and the finality of the crushing sensation as an AT-TE smushed her fading, failing body into the ground. Ahsoka remembered crying silently throughout her escape from the Jedi Cruiser after being forced to hide in a closet for a while due to the pain. Barriss Offee was dead, but no that wasn’t quite true, Barriss had been dead since a few short days after the bombing, it was Juzia that had died in the Purge and Ahsoka tried to look at it that way but it hurt like she had lost her friend all over again. Agony of the heart

*****

When Ahsoka woke up properly, unable to jolt upright as she usually did or even scream due to the pain from the burns covering ninety-five percent of her body. The Togruta took a moment to pull herself through the pain with a little assistance from her connection to the Force and found herself in a room she recognized almost as well as the room she had grown up in, the room she recognized almost as well as her room in the apartment she had shared with Anakin Skywalker. “It... It worked?” she croaked, questioning the sight her own eyes were showing her. It took an immense amount of willpower to stand, to endure the pain from the burns all over her body but in the end, she managed it. Ahsoka was where she knew she had to be, she had a unique chance to right a wrong that had been committed years before and she was nothing if not reckless so she was going to give it her all. While she hadn't been the one to blame for that wrong, she had always been torn up by what had happened after she left the Jedi, what had happened to Barriss, or Juzia as she had gone by after the Jedi Council robbed her of her memories, too short-handed to even give her a fair trial, instead choosing to send her back into the war an unwilling but unaware slave to the Order and its war effort. Fumbling around the room with her eyes half-closed due to the pain and guided purely by her memories, she finally managed to find some flimsi and wrote a quick note, her Aurebesh sloppy and unjoined. The pain was marring her senses and making it almost impossible to concentrate on what to say and write at the same time. _Kriffing hells, this hurts_. The Togruta groaned, finally finishing her little note and signing it with _Fulcrum_ , she then placed it gently on the pillow of the bed next to her with a gentle smile. She had caught sight of the holoimage that rested by the owner’s pillow, a picture of her and someone she hadn't seen in so long. _I hope this works_.

The Togruta retreated out of the room and back through the portal to the World Between Worlds where her legs betrayed her, the weakened Togruta fell to her knees then keeled forward with some finality to it but she had just enough strength to roll onto her side where she remained, hoping to catch a glimpse of her oldest and best friend one last time through the portal

*****

Back in the Jedi Temple and back in time sixteen cycles, Barriss Offee left the training room in tears, she had been hoping to meet up with her friend Ahsoka Tano, but the war and their leaders, the Jedi High Council had other ideas. Barriss had hoped to reunite with Ahsoka and talk to her over a spar and then almost certainly a conciliatory tea that Ahsoka would get her to make up for kicking her ass once again, she wanted to talk to someone about her misgivings and maybe even subconsciously wanted to hear Ahsoka talk her out of _it_ , talk her out of her most seditious, treasonous thoughts yet. She sighed and hid her face in her cloak, aiming for anonymity as she retreated toward her quarters as quickly as her legs would allow her. _Curse the Council and their whole-day war briefings!!_ She grumbled to herself, unlocking the quarters she shared with Luminara Unduli with a wave of her comm. _I have to get the bombs to Letta today_. To Barriss, the meeting she would've had with Ahsoka represented her last opportunity to nope out of the plan to bomb the Temple but the Council had stolen that opportunity from her, just like they stole her earliest memories of Ahsoka which left her with no choice but to carry on as planned. It was partially because the Jedi had stolen her memories that she had grown as disillusioned as she had with the Jedi and, while she didn't want to hurt anyone, she couldn't see any other way forward

Once the Mirialan Padawan had entered her room, for what would likely be one of the last times as she was likely to endure the Knight Trials soon enough, she sighed in relief and headed toward the bed to slump down and hopefully nap for a little while despite not trusting Letta to not rat her out should she fail to uphold her end of the agreement and deliver those modified nanodroids to the traitorous woman. She was about to fall flat on her face, the mattress too inviting despite it being nothing more than standard Jedi issue when she spotted a small flimsi note. _Should never have given Ahsoka the access codes_ she reminded herself with a smirk. What she found shocked her to the core

‘ _Dear Barriss_ ' the letter was written in an almost illegible scrawl many times worse than even Ahsoka's writing  
‘ _I hope you're doing okay, despite everything going on with the war. I know you feel particularly poodoo today but, I beg you, talk to your friends about what's bothering you. Tell them everything. They'll help you and if they don't, hand them the other letter I've written. Your plan won't help anyone, Barriss, in fact, I'm pretty sure it'll only make things worse for you and everyone you care about. Just talk to them, Barriss, talk to her, she'll understand, she is bonded to you after all_ ’  
The conclusion to the letter was all the more concerning to the model Jedi, ' _much love,_  
_Fulcrum <3_' complete with little heart symbol. The signature alone was enough to throw Barriss off her game. She only really had one close friend, that the letter meant her was also implied by the wording of the letter and of the people who knew she was incredibly close to Ahsoka, only one of them was on Coruscant. Master Obi-Wan was away on a mission, Anakin Skywalker had been reprising a role as a bodyguard and her Master, Luminara Unduli was off on some battlefront somewhere in the Outer Rim. Ahsoka was the only one she knew well that on Coruscant, both Padawans had been allowed a few weeks off from the war for an undisclosed reason and had been spending time studying, meditating and, in Ahsoka’s case, teaching Younglings. Ahsoka had been called into a briefing to outline their next mission, hers and Anakin's, they were due to set off for Cato Neimoidia within a few days and that would have been a perfect opportunity to set off her bomb, Ahsoka was far too fond of tinkering with her fighter to risk setting the bomb off while she was still in the Temple.

Barriss groaned, she couldn't help the anxiety that rolled off her in waves, something she was certain that would be picked up on. The young Padawan sat back and focused her attention on wrestling the wayward emotions she was beginning to feel and keeping them away from the two bonds she had forged. _Oh karrabast_. The whole project had been wrought with difficulties, first, she had to persuade Letta she was serious about betraying the only people she had to call a family which took several weeks, almost two months in of itself, then she had to finalize her plans and get the equipment she needed to continue the project, namely the nanodroids that would become the bombs. She had thought after making the plans that persuading Letta would be the most difficult part and was particularly bitter about those thoughts once she had successfully made it into the high-security vault that had contained the nanodroids, the company that manufactured them was well aware of their capacity to be weaponized and had been, much to Barriss’ chagrin, pretty much the only company that took proper precautions to ensure their dangerous tech didn't fall into the wrong hands. Barriss had had to kill multiple employees in order to go undiscovered and, at the time, hadn't noticed the very slight yellow tinge to the corners of her vision, a side-effect of the corrosive effects those actions were having on the young woman. By the end of the night, she had the nanodroids in a safe location far below the Jedi Temple, an unnamed warehouse on level 1315 and had murdered five individuals to achieve her goal. Barriss threw up once she had returned to the Jedi Temple but called on the inviting darkness that was yearning for her to block out the guilt and conflict those actions had caused

Sure enough, not even five minutes later there was a knock on Barriss' door and a ping on her comm. “Barriss... Let me in, I know you are not okay” A concerned-sounding Togruta spoke quietly but also clearly, she obviously wasn't aware that Luminara wasn't on Coruscant and was trying her hardest to be discrete.  
Resigned but ever more so in love with the woman who was treating her as a person rather than a Jedi, Barriss opened the door to her room. Ahsoka had entered the apartment without difficulty, a result of the codes Barriss had gifted the other young woman. “Hey, 'Soka” Barriss mumbled, her eyes fixed on the floor, ashamed of not only her emotions, but also of her innate, almost uncontrollable urge to hug her friend and get the comfort her relationship with Master Unduli had always lacked. She was as of yet unashamed of the actions she had been planning for she had, in her mind, been given no other option by the Council. The Council were busy pandering to the demands of the Senate and corrupting innocent children with their tendency toward the dark side, her own Master blindly followed them into the darkness and the Padawans who were barely adults at their oldest and just barely teenagers at their youngest naturally had no say in whether they were assigned a Master and sent off to the front or not. Barriss’ own friend Ahsoka had been the very first of the Younglings assigned to a Master before she was supposed to be. Most Younglings were chosen by a Knight or Master before they became sixteen and those that weren't chosen were sent off to the AgriCorps or one of the other service divisions but Ahsoka had set a precedence for the Jedi Council to assign Younglings to Knights and Masters regardless of their age. ‘The war effort needs it’, Barriss remembered Master Mace Windu’s words about the change in policy when the Council had announced their intentions using Ahsoka’s apprenticeship to The Chosen One as the model which the decision was based upon, they had quickly become quite possibly the most successful Knight/Padawan pairing in the history of the Order, perhaps save that of Master Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. No Knight or Master would have wanted to take the energetic, reckless young Togruta and she would have likely been shipped off to the AgriCorps in a couple cycles, a waste of pure skill if Barriss had ever seen one  
“Barriss, talk to me, please” Ahsoka whispered, wrapping her own Force signature around the other Padawan as her body wrapped around the Mirialan's physical presence

Much to the shame of the Mirialan, her body reacted against her will, she wrapped herself around the young woman in a stifling, desperate hug, her shoulders shaking from the force of her sobs, the control she had left having been broken by the contact and the genuine care the Togruta had for her. The older Padawan knew she was almost a Jedi Knight and that a Jedi Knight should have better control over their emotions but the war had worn her down so much that she simply couldn't control herself any longer and broke down with all the combined force of every suppressed breakdown the previous two years had induced. “Oh, 'Soka” she managed to get out amongst the tears. Dimly the intelligent Mirialan wondered if that was the plan of the mysterious _Fulcrum_ , to get her anxious specifically so that Ahsoka would sense it and come running. Somehow _Fulcrum_ had known Barriss and Ahsoka were bonded through the Force, something not even their Masters knew. “I missed you so much” she admitted quietly  
“I'm sorry I wasn't able to make our sparring session. I truly wanted to kick your butt again but I couldn't say no to the Council” Ahsoka replied in typical Ahsoka style, still all snark and humor. It actually relaxed Barriss almost as much as the hug, it was a relief that Ahsoka still hadn’t been changed all that much by the war  
“Aren't you supposed to be at one of their briefings right now?” Barriss asked once she had regained enough breath to speak at any great length. It was almost unheard of for a lowly Padawan to be granted a reprieve from a Council briefing  
“Uh-huh. Luckily Skyguy sensed how I was feeling and made excuses for me” she admitted with a small, fond smile. _Or at least he sensed how you were feeling and put two and two together. Think I'll have to warn Barriss that I think he's worked it out_  
_Lucky, Master Unduli would never do that for me_. Barriss settled into Ahsoka's arms and resided there for a little while, the pure bliss of finally being in someone's arms enough to chase away the young woman's demons, even if only for a fleeting moment

Sure enough, Barriss’ previous feelings returned after a mere few seconds and she began to sob once again. “What's wrong, Barriss?” Ahsoka asked immediately  
“Uh... Y-you'll hate me” Barriss whispered, trying to nuzzle her face into Ahsoka's shoulder once again, trying to cut out the galaxy that had hurt her so. A galaxy that had forced her, a healer, into becoming a soldier with the ultimate goal of murdering or subjugating entire civilizations for the worryingly political issue of seceding from the Republic  
“Please, talk to me, Barriss” Ahsoka insisted while allowing Barriss to nuzzle her shoulder, she would do almost anything to make Barriss comfortable  
“Fine!!” Barriss snapped with a growl, her eyes flashing dangerously for just a second. A yellow tint to her eyes becoming visible to the naked eye for a very brief moment  
“Barriss, what's going on?” Ahsoka was getting more and more concerned. Barriss Offee did not lose her temper, not ever. She hadn't yet caught sight of Barriss' corrupted eyes, the evil sulfuric yellow fading back into the blue before Ahsoka could catch it, the slight veins of yellow that persisted only visible under a microscope  
“Nothing, Ahsoka! Nothing for you to worry your pretty little tail-head about, okay?!” Barriss snapped, her eyes flaring their sickly yellow once again but it lasted for long enough to allow Ahsoka to catch sight of it out of the corner of her eye before it began to fade once again  
“B-Barriss... What did I do?” The young woman whimpered, tearing up. Ahsoka wasn't used to getting screamed at, at least not by her best friend. The Masters on the High Council were always screaming at Ahsoka over something or other regardless of the rules regarding emotions. Ahsoka had long accepted the hypocrisy of the Jedi Order since the Council were always breaking their own Code but came down hard on anyone else that did  
“Oh, kark!” Barriss squeaked In horror at what she had just done, Ahsoka was the last person she wanted to get angry at. “Ahsoka, I'm so sorry...” Barriss wrapped her arms around her best friend, the sickly yellow fading slower than it had before. _What in the name of all the Sith hells is happening to me?!_ Barriss could feel the anger within her bubbling, eager to be released at the slightest provocation, aimed at anyone unfortunate enough to be within range of the young woman's fury  
“J-just tell me what's wrong, Barriss, please” Ahsoka begged, distraught by the change that had occurred within her own best friend. _Does she even realize her eyes changed color to yellow?_ The orange-skinned Togruta asked herself. All Jedi knew what that meant, it meant _Sith_  
“Fine. But you’ll hate me forever.” Barriss gulped, it was now or never, she had to decide whether to accept what the mysterious _Fulcrum_ had said. Barriss had gotten the sense that Ahsoka wouldn't know anything about the letter so hadn't yet brought it up. If Ahsoka was still talking to her in five minutes, she could mention it then  
“Please let me help you”  
“Fine. I made plans to bomb the Jedi Temple... Okay?” Barriss stood and left the room in a rage, her eyes glowing a sickly golden yellow while Ahsoka sat on Barriss' bed, rendered immobile by the shock and horror of the revelation.

*****

In a world that was simultaneously the furthest away from the events that were transpiring and the closest to them, an older Togruta with orange skin, blue eyes, white markings on her face and long blue and white striped lekku lifted her tear-stained face in the tiniest of smiles simultaneously letting out the smallest of whimpers as she did so. _Good luck_. With that final thought, the Togruta’s connection to the Force that connected every living thing snapped, her head falling forward and her eyes losing the spark of mischief that she had held on to for a good thirty-five cycles

In the World Between Worlds, Ahsoka Tano became one with the Force, her body fading. She was met by an old friend who stood by her side in all her resplendent glory and was greeted as such. “Welcome, Ahsoka. It is nice to finally see you again”  
“Daughter” Ahsoka smiled and looked around. “And Morai” she acknowledged both her friends eagerly before asking the question that she wanted to know the answer to, “Do they...?”  
“Yes. You've given them a chance, Ahsoka.” The Force-Wielder named The Daughter looked at the woman with nothing but pride. “What you did was exceedingly brave. Had you left through the Malachor portal, you would’ve outlived even me. Despite that, you chose to sacrifice yourself and those are the actions of a true Jedi Master. Even so, death is not the end, at least not for you”

The Togruta and the Force-Wielder left together toward the source of all the Force, a place where only Yoda had ever visited while alive. “Come now, child, I have lessons I want to teach you. Lessons to achieve the secret to true immortality” The Daughter led Ahsoka off into the stream of the Force where Ahsoka experienced the true nature of the force in all its incomprehensible, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient nature. The Togruta had one advantage over all the others that had embarked on the path she had just taken her first few steps on, she, thanks to her unique connection to the Daughter, the Force wielder that embodied the light, she _understood_. She understood _everything_


	2. Part II: The Force Shall Set Me Free

“M-Master” Ahsoka stammered, she had been sat on Barriss' bed for about ten minutes, just stunned at what her best friend, what Barriss, the most gentle of all Jedi had admitted to. _She was... No, is planning to bomb the Temple. We Have to assume that she'll still go ahead with the plan. Barriss, oh Barriss, you've fallen to the dark side_  
“Snips?!” Anakin exclaimed through the comm device, it wasn't often that his awesome, amazing, tough yet kind Padawan was overwhelmed, so he was exceedingly worried when he heard what state Ahsoka was in even though she’d only said one word. He looked across the briefing holoprojector in the Jedi Temple’s war room at Obi-Wan who glanced up, feeling his old friend’s panic. “Snips, what's wrong?”  
“I need to see you and Master Obi-Wan, right now. I'm in Barriss' quarters.” She added almost as an afterthought. “In fact meet me at Dex's in ten minutes”  
Concerned even more by what Ahsoka had said, something that she felt couldn't be discussed in the Temple itself, Anakin turned to glance at Obi-Wan and jerk his head at the door. Obi-Wan, the smart man he was, understood the gesture and nodded, heading over to Windu and Yoda to explain that something had come up.

Almost exactly ten minutes later, Obi-Wan and Anakin stepped into the diner and were greeted by a familiarly overenthusiastic four-armed Besalisk. “Obi-Wan, Ani. You two got here just in time, Kid's quite distressed. Had to take her into the back room to calm down. She's fekking terrified so you two better go easy on her no matter what she says” Dexter Jettster, the owner of Dex's Diner was always welcoming of those of Obi-Wan's lineage and had taken to calling the young Togrutan teen 'Kid’ ever since he met her the first time. He was being uncharacteristically stern toward the two Jedi he has known for years, a surefire sign that nothing was okay  
“Did she tell you what was wrong, Dex?” Obi-Wan asked, ever the Negotiator.  
“No, but whatever it is, it was enough to upset her” Dexter replied with a frown. The trio knew just how important those words were, Ahsoka Tano did not get upset.  
The only times Anakin had seen her upset was after her first battle on Christophsis, and even then she didn't cry. The only times she had cried was after she lost that Youngling to the Trandoshans, _Kalifa_ he recalled, the time she had failed to save her friend Steela and the time she had been traumatized by a looming fate of being sold to Slavers, not one of the Jedi involved in that affair had slept alone for weeks after they returned to Coruscant. “Kark. That doesn’t sound good, Obi-Wan”  
“No, it does not” the Jedi Master agreed. “I have an extremely bad feeling about this”

Their friend led them through into the back room where sure enough a crying orange-skinned Togruta was curled up in a fetal position and who looked in those moments just like the terrified kid she should have been after seeing all that she had, all the war, all the suffering, all the death. “Oh poodoo,” Obi-Wan groaned. Dex clearly hadn't been exaggerating.  
“Snips?” Anakin took the initiative and moved forward to sit next to the young Jedi, pulling her up into his arms and resting her on his lap so her head fell onto the leg of her Grandmaster  
“Ahsoka... What's wrong?” The older man was sounding even more gentle than usual and a little unsure of himself, he hadn't ever seen Ahsoka so distressed before after all  
“I-I-I love you guys for coming” Ahsoka whispered, gripping both their hands tightly with the tiniest of smiles that only lasted a fraction of a second  
“What's wrong, Snips? Let us help you” Anakin prompted

Ahsoka didn’t reply for quite a while but then eventually she found her voice. “Barriss... Barriss” she managed to force out before she started hyperventilating and going into shock. “Barriss turned to the dark side” with that, Ahsoka finally passed out, her mind shutting down to protect itself  
“What the fekking hells?” Anakin blurted, he had known Barriss when he had been a Padawan and they had completed one or two missions together before the war came, before Anakin was promoted to Knight mere weeks into the war and assigned his own Padawan and what Ahsoka had said was as mortifying to him as it had been to Ahsoka. Anakin didn’t disbelieve her, not even for a second even without the assistance of the Force ringing true on what she had said but it still shocked him. Barriss Offee was the kindest, purest most studious Jedi, except his Snips, she was kinder and purer though being studious wasn’t really a trait he had taught the rebellious Togruta, not that he was biased or anything. Barriss was also a healer and as such, had anyone other than Snips told him that Barriss had turned to the dark side, he would've dismissed it as ludicrous

Obi-Wan knew he had no choice, he commed Luminara Unduli and Master Yoda to explain the situation, taking the opportunity to do so while Ahsoka was still out for the count and the Jedi on Coruscant immediately assembled search teams to go into the Coruscanti underworld to find their wayward fallen Jedi while Luminara took a shuttle to return to the planet. “Don't hurt her!” the human Master had snapped, turning off the comm and turning his attention back to the terrified Togruta who was, thankfully, still passed out.  
“What the kark is happening, Obi-Wan?” Anakin asked, squeezing Ahsoka's hand gently, reassuringly with his flesh and blood hand.  
Obi-Wan's old apprentice hadn't been ready to be a father but godsdamn, did Obi-Wan think he was doing a fekking good job. “I have no idea. This isn't on Ahsoka, this is on us for not picking up the signs that Offee was slipping.” He had insisted that the Council not hurt Offee, at least not if they didn't have to, for Ahsoka's sake, the fallen Padawan was one of her friends after all and the Council could probably have done with the reminder not to hurt her, but he didn't approve of Offee’s actions. “I'll stay with you til she wakes, then I'll go head out and commandeer a search party”  
“I'll get Snips some food then she'll probably want to join the search. She knows Barriss best out of all of us anyway” Anakin's comment got a raised eyebrow out of the older Jedi but that was it. Wisely, Obi-Wan didn't pursue that line of questioning any further

*****

Barriss was running scared. She had taken an indirect route all the way down to level 1315 and, after a long winding path to the warehouse where she had stored the nanodroids only to find something was wrong. The package was _missing_. The young Jedi whimpered and fell to her knees, Letta had obviously not trusted her as much as she thought and had someone watch the young woman just in case she showed signs of betrayal. Barriss couldn't even confront her, at least not anymore. She had betrayed both the Jedi and the activists. The young Mirialan was sure that the Jedi would be investigating all her activities and while she didn't have her lightsabers and was hiding in the dirt and grime far below where Letta and Jackar Bowmani lived, she knew the Jedi wouldn't stop pursuing her. The bombs were primed and ready for use, not to mention being in the hands of terrorists. Barriss fell to her knees. _What have I done?_

The fallen Padawan reluctantly stood after a little while, she had to go and deal with Letta and Jackar, eliminate loose ends and then disappear. Barriss hated the idea of running and vaguely wondered if whatever poor sucker she would have chosen to take the fall for the bombing would feel the way she did, feel the same distinct unpleasantness she felt, an unpleasantness that was at war with the fury she held for what the Order had done to her. They had stolen her memories of a happier time with Ahsoka! They had turned her best friend into a child soldier! They had forced her, a healer, to become a soldier and kill! No, she deserved to have revenge, for herself, for Ahsoka and for all those dead children. Accordingly, she delved deeper into the font of darkness that was welling up far beneath the Jedi Temple and she decided to make herself scarce, nobody would think to look for her beneath the Jedi Temple, and the darkness emanating from beneath would hopefully blot out her signature

*****

Ahsoka grumbled quietly to herself, she had been gently brought back to consciousness by who was essentially her father and grandfather and had been loaded up onto a speeder to go back to the Temple when an unbidden thought had her lurching across the speeder to take control of it. “Snips, what in the name of the Corellian hells are you doing?!” Anakin had yelped as the speeder took a sudden, almost uncontrolled dive into the depths of Coruscant.  
“I know who it is. I saw them” her reply garnered a pair of raised eyebrows. “In a vision” she added quickly, knowing full well Anakin knew she wasn't telling him everything  
“Sure, Snips” Anakin scoffed disbelievingly but allowed the change of direction anyway. They had been returning to the Temple but Ahsoka's ‘vision’ took precedence.

The three Jedi shot across the bowels of Coruscant and Anakin moved closer. “You know Snips, we’re going to have to talk about that _bond_ you have with Barriss Offee”  
Both of them ignored Obi-Wan's indignant noise at being the only one who didn't know, both vaguely amused that Obi-Wan suddenly knew how it felt to not know important stuff and Ahsoka sighed, “You worked it out, Skyguy?”  
“Of course I did” the human in question replied with a grin  
“Well with you being so you are I shouldn't be so surprised” Ahsoka replied with a shrug. _Not that you can talk..._  
Obi-Wan caught sight of a significant glance shared between the two Jedi and sighed, it seemed both were keeping secrets from him which was confirmed moments later by an almost intangible feeling sent across their bond, a feeling he wasn't privy to, just that he knew it had been shared

*****

Letta Turmond had just kissed her husband goodbye for what would be the last time. That complete stranger in the cloak and hood had warned her that their plan had been exposed by a traitor and that they needed to accelerate their plans. She had accordingly fed her husband the nanodroids and let him go on his way. How she had been betrayed was of no real surprise to her, she hadn't trusted Offee, not really and had her followed every step of the way. Things were in motion at long last and she'd make sure Offee suffered for her betrayal

All of a sudden there was a shriek of tortured metal and a loud crash. Three Jedi stormed into her apartment, four lightsabers raised and active. The oldest one with a beard was talking into a commlink, the youngest was looking around in distress over her ignited plasma blades and the younger of the two men kept her at lightsaber point. “Your sick little game is over, Bowmani” he growled  
“Barriss... How could you” the youngest whispered  
Seizing her opportunity, Letta began to take advantage of the blame that was easily visible, one of Offee's cloaks was visible on a coat peg. “She threatened me with that laser sword of hers, told me she'd kill me if I didn't do what she wanted!! If I didn't help her bomb the Jedi Temple!!! I swear her eyes glowed yellow for a moment before she pulled her saber away!”  
She had been stabbing wildly in the dark with the comment about the eyes, but the way Offee's eyes had burned an acidic, sulfuric yellow had been disconcerting and in no way natural. She was rewarded by a furious glare from both men while the young non-human with them slumped down on to the floor with her back braced against the wall. “Tell me everything” the older man demanded, the younger man kneeling down next to the distraught Togruta who had not one but two lightsabers on her belt.  
“She's gone, she's fallen...” the Togruta whispered, tears streaming down her face

Against her better judgment, Letta found herself taking pity on the youngster, no doubt remained that she was one of those that Offee has originally been attempting to save when she came up with the plan to bomb the Jedi, before she had allowed the darkness to overtake her. The war had been going on for years and Offee has ranted about how the young Jedi, Younglings really, were suddenly being assigned before thirteen years old so she couldn't be much older than sixteen, maybe seventeen, the usual age for a Padawan to be selected by a Master. Her whole teenage years had been taken away from her by fighting the war and in those moments, Letta went from the opinion that all Jedi should suffer for the chaos and death they have spread through the galaxy, to one that was more in line with Offee’s original thinking, that the Masters on the High Council needed to be stopped, by any means necessary, especially as they were guilty of crimes against sentients, the wiping of Offee’s memory one such crime. Her husband would be arriving at work soon enough anyway and then it would be irreversible. “You should remove the kid. Take her somewhere else” she advised in a rare show of compassion toward a Jedi  
“I'm not going anywhere. Barriss is my _friend_ ” she replied or more accurately snapped  
To hear of a Jedi talking so openly about an attachment was something the woman had not been prepared for, but she was much more expecting to see the disapproval on the faces of the two human Jedi. “Well, in that case, kid. Brace yourself” Letta mumbled to Ahsoka

Letta's thoughts and patient delaying were interrupted by a comm call from some high priority channel and the younger man who she suspected was the vaunted and fabled _Hero With No Fear_ answered and confirmed his identity. “Skywalker”  
“We have him. Inform Padawan Tano that her instincts have served her well” the deep voice spoke firmly and without emotion, not even anger at what had almost been done to the Jedi Temple  
_What?_  
“Yes, Master Windu.”  
“Ms. Turmond. You are under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder and for treason” the older man, she thought was the other half of one of the most successful Master-Padawan pairs in recent history, Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Negotiator  
“Just wait til the holonet hears that a Jedi was the one behind the Temple bombing...” Letta whispered triumphantly and with no small amount of unconcealed excitement. She had been planning for far too long to fail and she had a backup plan  
“There will be no Temple bombing. Your husband is in custody, you're under arrest and Padawan Offee will be found and will pay for her crimes” Anakin snarled. He was pretty irked by what Offee has almost done, knocking the High Council down a peg or two was always something he could get behind and he was pretty sure his former Master secretly agreed with him but killing innocents along the way? No. Just no

“What about the kid?” Letta whispered, indicating Ahsoka. It went against her better judgment but her heart went out for that little Togruta who looked as if her entire world had been crushed mercilessly. She hadn't asked to be a part of any of it, not the Jedi, not the war and certainly not any of Offee's plans. _Would she have been the one Offee would’ve framed? Gotten executed?_  
“She’ll be fine, sleemo” Anakin pulled the woman closer and applied the binders without any show off gentleness.  
“Quite,” Obi-Wan replied calmly. “We'd better get back to the Temple, Anakin. Come on, Ahsoka”  
Ahsoka seemed to be indecisive for several moments. “I-I'm sorry, Masters.” She declared with all the authority a Togrutan Padawan could muster. “I _have_ to help Barriss”  
_Compassion from a Jedi and unwavering loyalty for someone rather than their Order? Unheard of. Maybe they're not all bad_ Letta pondered to herself  
“You can't!” Anakin exclaimed. “You're just a Padawan” he added, aware of all the raised eyebrows and eye markings aimed at him  
“I'm also Barriss’ best friend. I have the best chance of finding her, of reasoning with her” Ahsoka replied, watching the conflict cross her Master’s and Grandmaster’s faces at her words, they knew she was right but they just didn't want to face the fact that their snippy little girl had grown up. And yes, they'd both deny it but they both viewed Ahsoka Tano as _their_ Padawan  
“Fine, Ahsoka.”  
“Obi-Wan!!”  
“She’s right, Anakin. She can find Barriss and hopefully bring her back.” _Master Unduli would normally be her only hope but thankfully, for Barriss, Ahsoka is here, and bonded with her_. “They are _bonded_ after all”  
“I understand, Master” the Knight turned to his Padawan. “May the force be with you, Snips”  
“You too, Skyguy” Ahsoka hugged him quickly them she was off  
_What an odd group of Jedi. Attachments, loyalty to friends, nicknames and a little family? Also what the kark is a bond?_  
“Come on, sleemo” with that, Anakin pulled on Letta and led her toward their waiting speeder, sensing Ahsoka dash off into the night

*****

Ahsoka found herself running around in what felt like circles, she had already bumped into Cad Bane who was as arrogant as he always was. He had been relaxing in a bar when the young Padawan approached him for information regarding a rogue Jedi of all things. She had then followed his leads to find he had misled her right into an unsuspecting Asajj Ventress  
“Ventress”  
“Little Padawan” she replied, a smirk on her face but her tone as dry as ever. “You been cast out the Order yet?” she asked and elaborated on Ahsoka's confused expression. “I had a vision that you were being hunted by those filthy clones. Is it true?”  
“No. It's not. I think you need to get your head checked out, Ventress” she replied dismissively, returning comfortably to their antagonistic back and forth  
“I'll have you know I'm on my _eighteenth_ therapist, Tano” Ventress snipped in irrigation. _At least I'm trying to sort out my issues, unlike you Jedi!!_  
“Feel sorry for the first seventeen” Ahsoka was looking at her fingernails and replied with a dismissive shrug. She couldn't help but imagine what that former Sith had done to those therapists that failed her. Nothing pleasant no doubt  
“Anyway, why are you here?” Ventress decided to get the conversation back on course, she blushed at the subtle accusation that she had murdered seventeen therapists. Not even _she_ was that crazy, the vast majority of people on Coruscant needed those therapists at least as much as she did!  
“I'm looking for Barriss Offee. Mirialan, a little taller than me, a little older than me. Diamond tattoos across her face and on the back of her hands, probably dark clothes and a hair shroud thingy she never removes.” _Unless we're alone on the rare occasion when she's drunk and it's late at night_. Ahsoka's smirk at the memory faded, _That's actually been getting more frequent, no doubt another warning sign I missed_  
“I see...” Ventress spotted the blush on the Togruta’s face and smirked slightly, chuckling at how the young woman's... wishes were oh so easy for her to see. “Yes. I saw her, heading in the direction of that duracrete monstrosity of yours”  
_The temple, why would she go there?_ Ahsoka frowned, “Why would she go to the Temple?”  
“Beats me. If I'm lying I'll be waiting right here. Rematch”  
“Ugh. Fine, whatever” and off the snippy little Padawan ran again  
“Give me strength...” Ventress grumbled, throwing herself down on her couch with a long drawn out long-suffering sigh. She had hoped to finally have been freed from the annoying little Jedi who pursued her endlessly. She had done wrong in the past but didn't those senile old fools realize she was trying?! It irritated her to no end that the Order that was supposedly about forgiveness hadn't given her a second chance. She had been just as brainwashed as any other Sith, any of the Jedi for that matter

Ahsoka shot off toward the Jedi Temple, dropping level after level in her force-enhanced dash toward the Temple. She could feel something on the edge of her senses and it felt _dark_. Assuming it to be their missing Jedi she took the plunge even further into the depths of Coruscant, stopping a mere level or two above the toxic gases that covered the bottom hundred or so levels of the city and knowing she shouldn’t be there. “Let's do this” Was mumbled and the Togruta stepped forward, putting one foot in front of another to approach the eerie-looking blood red and black monstrosity far beneath the Jedi Temple. _What the kriff? What is this place?_ Slowly the Togruta adjusted to the darkness and she could sense the tendrils darkness that spread out from the pyramid ahead of her and up toward the Jedi Temple far above. _Oh no_.

The Sith Temple stood defiantly before the young Padawan and dared her to enter. She struggled with the door but had help from an unexpected source, she was already holding up one stone slab with her Force but regardless of feeling as if she was on the edge of her capacity she slowly she lifted her other hand, lifting the second of the slabs with strength she never even realized she had, the strength came from deep within herself.

Staggered by the effort of forcing her way past six of those gigantic slabs of stone, the Padawan leaned against the wall, tired and stressed but she knew if she gave up where she was she wouldn't ever be seen by anyone ever again, at least not before she became a skeleton so the young Padawan forced herself to her feet and began walking toward... wherever the force was taking her. She was awed by the architecture surrounding her, yes, the place literally oozed evil but she still found herself admiring it and was following an uncomfortable itch in the back of her head, the bond. _It has to be the bond_. She followed that bond for what felt like days but was only hours until, fatigued, hungry and thirsty she came across a gigantic room at the very top of the Temple where she was surprised to see a hooded figure stood over a collapsed young adult. “GET AWAY FROM HER!!” Ahsoka screamed without thinking, throwing herself at the figure only for it to vanish in a cloud of smoke and a sinister laugh

“Ah-Ahsoka?” a green face lifted off of its knees and looked toward the shriek, her eyes glowing a sickly golden color. “Help me” she pleaded, Somewhere under all the layers of anger, Barriss Offee was still fighting  
“Oh my... Barriss!!” Ahsoka threw herself to her knees and placed her hand on the Mirialan's knee. She hadn't ever seen the young woman so frightened before, so angry before.  
“You shouldn't be here... I cannot believe they sent a Padawan after me, knowing how much danger a Jedi would be in coming down here!!” The young Mirialan woman sounded on the verge of hysteria or maybe just attacking her friend. “There's someone here...”  
Ahsoka barely had time to get her blades out before a bolt of lightning shot toward her and she was forced to block it with crossed blades. “Fek”  
“Good... Goooooood” a sinister voice hissed, “you came here to save your friend and in doing so, doomed yourself too”  
“Go to hells!!” the Padawan stood in front of her friend protectively  
“That is exactly where I plan to take you. I am Naga Sadow, Dark Lord of the Sith and I will be your doom, Jedi”  
“Come on then, bring it!!” Ahsoka glared at the being while it drew its lightsaber  
“You will kill this child” the human Sith commanded the Mirialan. “It is the only way. The weak must be slaughtered by the strong and you are strong”  
“No...” a weak voice replied, “no, I cannot kill her. She's my friend”  
“Then you will never be free!!” the creature, Sadow stood tall and proud. “You will never be free from the oppression of the Je...”  
“You. Shut it” Ahsoka snapped, pulling her green blades out in front of her and igniting them again. “I'm taking my friend to safety and you will get out of my way or I'll kick your ass”  
“You? Little Padawan...”  
“Me” Ahsoka confirmed, the color of her eyes changing into a faint green  
“And me” another voice spoke, using Ahsoka's mouth to speak  
“Either way,” the Sith shrugged, managing to hide his momentary surprise well enough, “you will die” the Sith replied, leaping at the Jedi and fallen Jedi only to be stopped midair. Ahsoka was holding him up with one hand. “Begone, foul spirit!!” she demanded over the creature's incomprehensible shrieks of pure, unadulterated rage.

It took most of Ahsoka's remaining strength but she dissolved the evil presence, sending the spirit back to whatever hell it had originated from. The young Togruta was letting off a slight, incredibly light green glow, so light it looked almost white at first glance as she fought off the malevolent Sith spirit and subsequently fainted from exertion, her green eyes closing  
“Oh no...” Barriss ran forward to catch the falling Togruta while the sith spirit shrieked and faded, banished back to wherever it came from in an act that the Mirialan couldn't quite believe. Barriss was conflicted even as she gently lowered her former friend to the ground, the darkness both within herself and surrounding her urged her to cut down the insolent insignificant Jedi before her with the Jedi's own blades but... She couldn't quite bring herself to bring the girl’s green blade down on the neck of the defenseless Padawan before her. “No...” she whispered to herself, deciding that no matter what the darkness promised, she couldn't hurt her friend. Her eyes still burned the golden color of corruption but even though the darkness promised her _everything_ she had ever wanted, she still couldn't complete her descent into the darkness, couldn't complete that final challenge placed before her, couldn't kill Ahsoka Tano. Had it been anyone else she would have immediately sliced their head off or cut their throat and without a shadow of a doubt fallen the rest of the way, would have become a Sith but something held her back from lowering that blade just that little bit further. An inch, that was her estimate, an inch was all that stood between her and the power that she was promised but it might as well have been a million light-years.

“Thank you” Barriss hadn't even been aware that Ahsoka had regained consciousness, at least not until the girl spoke a few moments after she banished the Sith. “You could've chopped my head off, but you didn't. I forgive you”  
Barriss was confused. Ahsoka was... Forgiving her? She looked down and found the blade was no longer humming over the younger woman's throat, wasn't humming at all. “I didn't... Do it?” she asked the chamber at large.  
“No, you didn't. The light prevailed” Ahsoka replied calmly, gazing into the Mirialan's sickly corrupted orbs  
With that, Barriss broke down. Years and years of abject misery poured off of the Mirialan. The amount of pain she held was, to Ahsoka, incredible. Having gained a valuable insight into her friend’s pain, Ahsoka had no idea how Barriss had gone so long without breaking and had no idea how she, Barriss' friend and bonded, had missed it. Finally, after what must have been hours of crying in which Barriss sobbed until she was unable to sob, apologized until she was unable to speak and screamed until she was unable to scream, Barriss looked up at her with a curious yet wondrous expression, in awe at how Ahsoka Tano was the purest of all the Jedi, how she hadn't been corrupted by the war or the horrific experiences she had gone through that Barriss felt were far more destructive than her own experiences. Barriss knew that she hadn't really faced anything as dire as some of the situations Ahsoka found herself in, the worst Barriss had faced was pretty serious and had left her traumatized but Ahsoka had faced her own equivalent to the brain worm incident that had left Barriss so traumatized, Mortis. The purest of all the Jedi had been infected by the dark side and turned like a vampire. Aside from that, Ahsoka had endured the Blue Shadow Virus, a lethal formerly extinct virus that killed a lot of people in ancient history and almost killed the entirety of Naboo, had been taken captive by slavers, knocked out and injured countless times and had even been killed once. “I'm sorry, so so sorry, Ahsoka” the young woman sobbed uncontrollably, her corrupted orbs weeping  
“Hush, Barriss, Hush. I got ya” Ahsoka wiped endless tears off of the green face and poured out all the love she could to ensure the hold the darkness had on her best friend was vanquished once and for all even though she knew it would be a long arduous journey back to the light. “You're safe. I'm safe. The Temple is okay. Everyone is okay. You didn't do anything wrong” she knew the Jedi would most likely disagree with her on that point but she didn't care, she wouldn't let them abandon her friend, she wouldn't let them hurt her.

An indeterminate amount of time passed in the shadow of the Sith Temple that stood as a beacon of corruption miles beneath the Jedi Temple, both Jedi able to shield themselves from the darkness within with deceptive ease, or, more precisely, Ahsoka used the force she found within herself to shield them both from the evil of the Temple, at least until Barriss spoke. “I have nanodroids,” she said, perhaps desperate to return to some semblance of normality after the horror of her plan, a plan that had almost been allowed to happen. “Let’s put them to good use” a reckless declaration that would have gotten her impaled if she had said it to anyone other than the Togruta by her side.  
“Will they be enough?” Ahsoka asked, not skeptically, but also not daring to hope. She recognized the olive branch as what it was and wanted to live in the moment, where they were both safe, alive and firmly on the side of the light regardless of the state of Barriss’ eyes. The woman was trying and that was what was important  
“You must have felt it, the ground around here is exceedingly unstable. There's also a source of heat far below here that you must've felt”  
“I have. Are you intending to do what I think you're intending to do?” Ahsoka had a grin on her face at the idea  
Barriss smirked and watched her companion bounce from foot to foot. “Race ya. The first one back here gets the honor”  
“You're on” she chucked and sprinted off once she had half the containers of nanodroids the Mirialan had been carrying with her  
“Hey!! That's cheating!!” Barriss complained loudly to the back of the rapidly moving Togruta

*****

Mace Windu was sat in Yoda's private meditation chamber in silence, both were attempting to figure out what to do about the wayward Padawan and the other Padawan that had chased after her to 'save’ her. The dark-skinned male was of the belief that 'once a Sith, always a Sith’ and he knew that his sole superior, Yoda agreed with him, with his familiar 'once you start down the dark path’ speech when the entire Temple shook unexpectedly. Any kind of seismic activity on Coruscant was so far back in ancient history that nobody had ever experienced it but it also didn't feel like the artificial explosion they had been expecting if the Turmond woman had used her husband as a decoy. It felt as if it was far beneath the Temple and it startled both Jedi out of their contemplation. “What was that?!”  
“Know, I do not. Find out we must” Yoda stood with some effort and moved toward the exit of the room with a determined look on his face. Emerging out into the corridors of the Jedi Temple, the Masters watched other Jedi run around in a barely controlled panic. “Tell me the situation, you must” the elder Master had stopped a young Knight  
“Master Yoda. I have no idea, there was this gigantic explosion somewhere beneath the Temple”  
“Is the Temple secure?” Windu asked with a disapproving scowl  
“Oh yes, whatever it was happened miles beneath the foundations of our home, whatever it was must've been obliterated though” the Knight replied, “We’re just taking the Younglings and Padawans to the bunker”  
“Find Knight Skywalker we should. Has something to do with this, he probably does” Yoda deadpanned. Windu had to admit it was a sound hypothesis, whatever mayhem happened around the Jedi seemed to come back to that particular troubled Jedi

*****

Meanwhile, far beneath the Jedi Temple, next to a smoking and jagged hole left from the explosions and the Sith Temple that had plunged into the roiling core of the planet, two young women were coughing and laughing, a thick layer of dust covered both of them from montral to toe. “THAT WAS IN-CREDIBLE!!” a gray-looking Togruta exclaimed, half hacking her lungs up from all the disturbed dust and trying desperately to wipe off the dust that covered her entire body save her beautiful green eyes  
“Heh. It was pretty impressive, Ahsoka” the seemingly gray-skinned Mirialan replied with a big grin, it was just like old times. She eyed the detonator in her Togruta friend's hand with her corrupted eyes as the younger girl had won, while the Mirialan was no slouch, she just couldn't compete with her younger friend who had always excelled at the physical aspects of the Jedi path. The Togruta’s companion sounded as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Barriss’ eyes had even lost a tiny portion of their corruption  
“Bye-bye Darth whatshisname” Ahsoka chuckled. “Nothing quite like blowing something up when...” her eyes widened and she turned back to her companion. “I'm so sorry, Barriss. I wasn't thinking” she replied. Barriss shrugged, she knew her companion well enough to know she didn't mean anything by it.  
“I know you better than that, 'Soka. I know you don't mean it like that”  
Ahsoka smiled, “c'mon we'd better get going, before Skyguy or Luminara come after us. It'll take a good five hours to get back to a turbolift anyway”  
Barriss sighed in relief, she was not ready to face the judgemental glares of the High Council, or the disappointed expression that Luminara was sure to offer her. _Oh gods, Master Unduli!_  
“Come on, sweetie”  
_Sweetie?_ It was the use of the affectionate term that finally kicked Barriss into action and she trailed after Ahsoka with a small smile at the realization that Ahsoka was holding her hand. “Oh, my stars” she mumbled, overwhelmed by the actions of her far too forgiving friend.

*****

“Bomb the Jedi Temple, you were going to.”  
Barriss winced at the statement but knew better than to deny it. She had been caught dead to rights by her friend who had apparently, according to other Jedi, been in the High Council chambers for four hours, ever since they returned to the Temple, the Togruta a free woman and the Mirialan a prisoner. Ahsoka had stormed up to the High Council with a rarely seen determination, one that had only been seen once before, and only by a limited number of people. In those moments, Ahsoka was more determined than the young Queen of Naboo had been when retaking the Theed Palace back from the Trade Federation. As such, nobody dared get in her way  
“Young Tano has been fighting for you” Saesee Tiin spoke and the Togruta’s lekku darkened from the declaration while Barriss looked away to hide her yellow eyes  
“Yea. She has _always_ been loyal to those she loves” Obi-Wan added, almost daring the other Master to cast doubt on his Grandpadawan. “Her arguments against a trial and punishment were that you stopped before carrying out the bombing and that you confessed to her, naming your coconspirator before anyone could get hurt. Sadly, Prisoner Offee, it is not as simple as 'no harm done’, you still planned to commit seditious and treasonous acts against our Order, against your home”  
Barriss looked over at Ahsoka, shame and misery easily apparent in her eyes. _I'm so sorry_  
“I for one think you should be punished to the full extent of the law, but” Mace Windu began only to be cut off by an irate Ahsoka  
“But if you do that, I'm walking away and taking Barriss with me, Master Windu, I told you that already. I will not support an Order that condones the death sentence” the Togruta snapped, “and if I do go, who will help Master Kenobi keep Master Skyguy in order?” she asked lightly, conversationally but her words had hidden weight. “You would isolate him and a lot of others. I know far better than you that a lot of Padawans and Knights even have reservations about going to war, it is not the Jedi way, or at least it wasn't supposed to be” she paused and Barriss had to wonder if she had been taking lessons in politics from her friends Senator Amidala and Senator Chuchi. “Barriss did fall, yes. But she is stood before you now, is she not? She came here ready to die for what she did, she expects, no _wants_ to be punished for her terrible mistake and that is not the attitude of a Sith, as I'm sure you know.” There were a few glances at Ahsoka’s apparently detailed knowledge of her friend’s state of mind but Ahsoka didn't give them a chance to question it. “Was Darth Maul ever repentant over his actions, killing Qui-Gon Jinn? Killing Satine Kryze?” she asked, looking Kenobi in the eyes. “Was Count Dooku ever repentant for all the Jedi he and his mechanical menace have killed over the past few years, Master Yoda?” Ahsoka knew the answers and knew she had beaten them at their own game. She had a backup plan but for the time being had 'quitted while ahead', the backup plan involved telling everyone in the Order what Yoda and the other High Council members had done to Barriss, how they stole the memories of an innocent child over a Force Bond that she and her friend, who was too young to remember any of it had no idea they had created. Force bonds didn't _just happen_ , the individuals involved had to be highly compatible for it to work, that, if they meet, there would be a high probability of them falling in love even without the bond  
“No” Kenobi replied. “He was not”  
“No,” Yoda replied to a triumphant gleam from the Togruta. Barriss couldn't quite believe it, had Ahsoka saved her soul, her life _and_ the lives of all that would have been killed by the bomb?!  
“Very well, take your opinion into account, we will. Decide Prisoner Offee’s fate we must. Padawan Tano, Prisoner Offee, wait outside, you can”

Ahsoka nodded and guided Barriss out of the chambers with a frown. Once outside and sequestered away in a private meditation room as Barriss was still self-conscious of her eyes, she turned to her friend. “I'm sorry, Barriss. I tried” she mumbled, self-deprecatingly, defeated.  
“Ahsoka, you _won_ ” Barriss replied, well aware of the tears in Ahsoka’s eyes. “I can't be totally sure but... I think you very much beat them... For me” she looked at the other girl with newfound respect, not every Padawan could go up against the Council and not only give them a sound verbal lashing, but change their minds about something they had already decided long before Ahsoka brought her back. Barriss knew they would have already decided upon her fate and had tried to tell her best friend as such before they arrived back at the Temple  
“Of course I tried. Barriss, I know we can't but... I love you”  
Barriss didn't dare say the words, especially under the circumstances, but mouthed them instead

******

Barriss sat in silence ever since Ahsoka's declaration, until Obi-Wan called them back in. “Padawan Tano, Prisoner Offee, can you come back in please?”  
Ahsoka sighed, Barriss gulped but they both entered the chambers despite their misgivings. “Come on, 'Soka” Barriss whispered

“You will not need those, Padawan Tano” Shaak Ti spoke calmly, it wasn't very often that she actually spoke in council meetings. Barriss shot her friend a side-eye and saw that Ahsoka’s hands were on her lightsabers  
“You will let her go?” Ahsoka asked, a light pleading tone to her question  
“No, I'm sorry, Lil' ‘Soka” Plo Koon spoke. “We have however decided that Prisoner Offee will not be facing trial, on the understanding that she may never leave the Temple again, at least for the foreseeable future. She can, of course, work toward regaining her status as a Padawan Learner but for the time being, she's confined to her quarters and under the supervision of Master Unduli.”  
“Your arms please, _Padawan_ ” Luminara stepped forward and was holding something in her hands, objects that looked like the thermal sleeves that the Jedi wore on cold planets but that much more bulky  
“What are those??” Ahsoka interjected very aware that Luminara had referred to Barriss as ‘Padawan’ rather than her name as was the Mirialan in question, a sure sign that the Master was supremely disappointed with her charge  
“Force blockers, Padawan Tano” she replied calmly  
Appalled, Ahsoka turned to try and get support from the Council on such abominations but quickly realized that they had known and they approved. “The alternative is death, isn't it?” she asked  
“Most likely,” Windu replied coldly. He did not approve of the action and would rather see Barriss die for her crimes  
“Fine. Not like there's much choice”

“Padawan Tano, you need a shower” Shaak Ti spoke again, only the second time in the meeting and probably only the fifth time in Ahsoka’s awareness and was referring to the exceedingly grubby state of said Padawan from the earlier explosions, something that hadn't been covered in any of the two Padawans' retelling of the events. “Please go and attend to your hygiene needs and return here once you're done, we still have a few things to discuss with you”  
Ahsoka, who had been gazing at Barriss with envy since she had an opportunity to shower while Ahsoka was arguing with the Council, nodded and slowly ambled out of the room. “Yes, Master” she had been looking forward to a nice shower, a shower with water. Ahsoka's quarters had been retrofitted with a water shower since the sonics in a sonic shower, which came as standard in Jedi quarters aside from those on the various Councils, played havoc with Togrutii montrals.  
“Ahsoka, wait!” The Togruta turned by the door, giving her best friend all her attention again. Barriss and Ahsoka hadn't talked about what had happened while on the multiple hour walk back to the Temple or while waiting the several hours for the Council’s decision, they had decided to keep the subjects light and had talked about many things that they would’ve talked about before Barriss went down the dark path. “Thank you, for everything” she spoke earnestly and genuinely, hugging her best friend with teary eyes

******

Ahsoka was startled to see everyone she knew well waiting for her in the Council chamber when she returned from her shower. Anakin, Master Unduli and Barriss in her force-blocking sleeves were stood to one side along with Padme, Riyo and a Youngling, Katooni, the latter three were the last people she ever expected to see, especially since Riyo wasn't really involved with the Jedi. Master Yoda called her forward into the center of the room, the Knights and Masters igniting their lightsabers over her head. “Defeating a Sith Lord, hard it is. Harder still, returning someone to the light is. Earned this, you have”  
Ahsoka looked over at her friends, Barriss, Katooni, Riyo and Padme who were all drying their eyes, they all knew what it meant, Anakin had explained to Padme and Riyo beforehand. For once, Barriss' eyes had splotches of blue in them. “Thank you” the Togruta mumbled  
“By the right of the Council, by the will of the Force, I dub thee Jedi, Knight of the Republic.” Yoda cut the Padawan chain off of Ahsoka's head and handed it to the young woman with a large and very genuine smile. “ _Knight_ Tano”

“Congratulations, Ahsoka!!” Padme wrapped her up in a massive hug and Riyo followed along close behind her friend and often ally  
“Yeah, well done, Master Jedi” Riyo teased, she had known the Padawan well ever since they teamed up to save the Senator's friends, the daughters of the Pantoran Chairman  
“I'm so proud of you, Ahsoka” Anakin smiled. “Gonna be different, and probably easier without your snippy little attitude around” Ahsoka rolled her eyes fondly at the words of the man who had raised her since she was a snippy little brat. Both knew that Anakin would probably be dead if it wasn't for that snippy little brat  
“I dread to think what she'll be like on missions now she is a General...” Obi-Wan muttered and Ahsoka swatted him, reminding them all just how young she was to achieve her Knighthood. She had beaten Anakin to Knighthood by several years despite just how powerful he was, he wasn't the type to bring those that had fallen back from the dark side.  
“Hey, Master Tano... Uh Ahsoka. You beat me to my Knighthood. Well done, I'm glad you were Knighted, you deserve it” Barriss smiled at her best friend after correcting herself, knowing that Ahsoka wouldn't want her to call her _Master Tano_ or _Knight Tano_. She only wished she could have held the other girl's hand  
“Yes, Lil' 'Soka. You earned this, you're ready” Plo Koon offered up his own opinion to the gobsmacked Togruta  
“Congratulations, Master Tano” Katooni added her own congratulations, not overly sure why she was there, her confusion apparent in her Force signature

Congratulations given and well aware that all of Ahsoka’s friends and family would want to celebrate, Master Yoda invited Katooni to share the center with Ahsoka and he opened his hand to show the Youngling a chain with a few beads on it to which Katooni's mouth fell open, she had been tested in the real world but she was still particularly young, as were all members of the Akul Clan. “Ready you are, Knight Tano.” He handed the chain to Ahsoka to put on the child’s head, “Padawan and Master you now are”  
Ahsoka stood there shocked and speechless, within four hours she had gone from vehemently opposing the High Council and risking their ire to being Knighted and given a Padawan of her own, years before she expected any of it. She had also unknowingly continued her lineage’s tradition of nontraditional Knightings. “Thank you, Masters. I'm not sure I'm ready for this responsibility but I promise you Katooni, I'll do everything I can to not fail you”

Barriss began to clap, followed by everyone in attendance, even Mace Windu and Saesee Tiin, the two most outspoken critics of Anakin and Ahsoka. They knew when they had been proven wrong and would concede to Ahsoka that her part in their final discussion of Prisoner Offee's fate was masterful. Both knew that, even as Ahsoka led her group of friends to the turbolift in order to leave and go out for a celebratory dinner, Prisoner Offee was going to be able to cause little trouble since Luminara Unduli would be keeping an incredibly close eye on her. They had originally intended to execute Barriss and ban Luminara from ever taking a Padawan again, but Ahsoka had intervened and forced them to change their minds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're done with the bombing arc now, things are gonna be different from here on out, in case you hadn't realized:)


	3. Part III: The Struggles of a Fallen Padawan

The weeks and months passed by quickly for the newly Knighted Knight Tano and her young Padawan, Katooni as they rushed from skirmish to skirmish, often aiding in Anakin Skywalker's crazy schemes or saving Obi-Wan Kenobi from a plan that had backfired, most often spectacularly, though there was an unspoken tension that came to a head eight or so months down the line from when Ahsoka stopped Barriss’ plot to bomb the Jedi Temple and destroyed what was left of a Sith Shrine far beneath the Temple, a Sith Shrine that had been contaminating the Jedi for millennia. Ahsoka had just finished up cleaning up a Separatist assault on yet another Outer Rim world when an urgent comm call came to her attention before she could even disembark her Starfighter on the lead Venator-Class of her task force, the Three-Three-Second Legion that had been formed out of the Five-Oh-First’s most experienced and those that had been reassigned from various other Legions that had been up for reassignment after their Jedi Generals died or were taken off active duty. “Return to Coruscant, you must” the familiar blue avatar of the galaxy's tiniest Jedi spoke calmly to her. “A complication, there has been”  
“What do you mean, Master?” Ahsoka exclaimed, dread filling her at the words, the Force was definitely trying to tell her something  
“Attacked, young Offee has been. In the Halls of Healing, she is.” _Worse than we could possibly have imagined, her situation is. See it, we did not. Guilty, we are_

“I'll be right there” Ahsoka had been attending regular therapy sessions with her green-skinned friend, sessions that the green-skinned woman had been having daily with the most understanding of all the Jedi Mind-Healers, though Ahsoka had only been attending weekly or monthly sessions with her as she had been busy fighting for the Republic. She had always made an effort to return for the weekly therapy sessions but more and more she had been forced to miss them as her orders took her further and further away from the Core where hyperspace journeys alone took multiple days. The Togrutan General’s Legion was cocommanded by her young Padawan, Commander Katooni and her old friend Commander Rex, who she knew could handle any situation in his General’s absence and who had been essential in bringing Katooni up to speed on what was needed in a Jedi Commander once they had officially taken command of the Three-Three-Second. Rex had commented that Katooni was a lot easier to work with than a young Ahsoka had been and had even jokingly encouraged her to do something reckless to which Ahsoka growled at Rex and told him to grow up, much to the amusement of the Tholothian teen. The trio had grown close to each other and Anakin, just like the little family unit that Ahsoka had been a part of while she was Anakin's Padawan but Anakin was more the crazy uncle than the overprotective brother or even father he had been to Ahsoka. The ‘ _Hero With No Fear_ ' had been the sole instigator of the much-feared 'Prank War of 7958’, a conflict that was spread across a few weeks in which Ahsoka and Rex had gone up against Katooni and Anakin in a prank war of the ages. Ahsoka and Rex had won, just about, thanks to multiple intelligence reports from various other Troopers who had joined Ahsoka’s Three-Three-Second and effectively negated the worst of Anakin's pranks, or even turned them on him and his coconspirator much to the amusement of all those involved. Anakin had cried foul play, but due to the lack of evidence as such and lack of support from Katooni, he had been forced to concede

Ahsoka sighed and returned to the bridge where Rex, Katooni and Captain Vaughn where waiting for her. “We've been recalled to Coruscant” she stated calmly, much to the surprise of the other two, the skirmishes they had been involved in were gradually getting longer and longer and Rex had pretty much given up any hope that he’d ever get to see the inside of Seventy-Nine's again, the Clone Trooper bar back on Coruscant  
“General?” Rex replied, it had taken him ages to get out of the habit of calling Ahsoka 'Commander' and it was something she teased him mercilessly for  
“Yea. Barriss was attacked” Ahsoka replied, the vaguest whisper of her dread leaking out into her tone. “She's in the Halls of Healing”  
Katooni looked up at her master with concern since their bond was exceedingly close and despite Ahsoka's strong mental defenses she could almost always sense her Master’s emotions, the Togruta’s green eyes were also slightly damp. The young Padawan hadn't liked being around Barriss at first, the smothering veil of the dark side covered the older Padawan in a thick slime, it always came close to infecting anyone that ended up getting too close to the Mirialan and made the young Tholothian feel very sick. She often took Ahsoka aside and quietly requested that she be assigned private study in the Archives instead of waiting outside the assigned quarters that Barriss and her Master, Luminara Unduli shared while Ahsoka attended the therapy session. The quarters themselves were bigger than the regular ones assigned to Master and Padawan pairs since Barriss and Luminara rarely left their quarters as Barriss didn't really feel welcome in the rest of the Temple. Nobody said anything to Barriss’ face as Jedi were far too polite to do so but she knew they were all talking about her. Rumors reached her ears that the Council had intended on forbidding Luminara from taking any future Padawans before Ahsoka stepped in to argue her case on the Mirialan's behalf. Barriss herself wasn’t allowed anywhere near Younglings or any of the Padawans for the fear that she would influence them and make them follow in her footsteps, down the dark path she had stumbled down. “Are you okay, Master?” the Tholothian asked, touching her Master’s shoulder with a smile. They often provided support to one another, Ahsoka's species being a social one, Katooni had quickly learned that nothing calmed her down like a hand on her shoulder or, on the rare occasions that failed, a hug  
“I'm fine Katty” Ahsoka smiled reassuringly even though she wasn’t okay. “Katty, I'm okay” she smiled gently and hugged the youngster, using the nickname she had given the Youngling soon after they had become Master and Padawan. “Are you going to be okay with seeing Barriss?”  
“I don't know, Master. She's gotten a lot better but the slime is still on her. I threw up the first time I went near her” the Padawan admitted quietly  
“I'm so sorry, Katty” Ahsoka frowned, she hadn't known that Katooni had gotten that sick after seeing Barriss  
“It's fine, Master. It wasn't your fault”  
“We’re ready to go, General” Rex interrupted, he was stood in front of her, saluting and smiling. He loved working with Ahsoka. She had a much better attitude toward paperwork for one, and she was a lot more careful with the lives of her men than even General Skywalker had been  
“Punch it!!”

*****

The trip through hyperspace took seventeen hours and by the time they came out of the multidimensional travel, Ahsoka had used meditation to calm herself down and was back to being her usual calm stoic self, even the underlying current of anxiety and distress was well smothered. She stepped off the gunship and into the hanger where two of the Healers were waiting for her arrival. “Master Che”  
“Knight Tano, welcome back” the blue-skinned Twi'lek smiled at her. It was rare for the Head Healer to meet new arrivals but Barriss was under her supervision, the same as she was under Luminara Unduli’s supervision  
“Thank you, Master.” Ahsoka nodded and smiled a forced smile, “Where is she?”  
“Right down to business, just like your Master”  
“Forgive me.” Ahsoka bowed, “This is my Padawan, Katooni”  
“There's nothing to apologize for. Let's get going. Barriss is serious, but stable.”  
“And what about Master Unduli?”  
“I'm sorry to say, she's in a coma” Che replied. She had been close to Luminara Unduli at one time and was somewhat distressed that someone had hurt her so badly.  
“Oh no... _Poor_ Barriss” Ahsoka’s eyes widened. Barriss Offee had lost everyone. Everyone had turned their backs on her and Luminara Unduli seemed to be only sticking by her side because the High Council ordered it and not because she wanted it. The displeasure that Luminara had felt toward her young apprentice had literally been oozing out of every pore of the older woman the last time they had been in Ahsoka's company together and the Togruta had originally intended to pull Luminara aside to talk to her and hopefully snap her out of it but hadn't been given the chance due to the war  
“That's partly why we recalled you, in fact, Master Yoda will want to speak to you” Che elaborated  
“Thank you, Master” Ahsoka led herself and her Padawan into a small bow of respect

Master Che led Ahsoka and Katooni to the halls of healing and into a private room where the green Jedi master was waiting for them with a miserable expression on his face and his ears drooping. “Young Tano. A pleasure it is, to see you again”  
“Master Yoda!” Ahsoka moved to bow but in doing so she caught sight of the older Padawan’s upper arms above and around the force inhibiting sleeves she had been forced to wear for many months, a symbol of her greatest failures and mistakes. “Oh curse the Force!” she exclaimed earning her a raised eyebrow from the little Jedi for the foul language. “Sorry, Master!” Barriss’ upper arms were wrapped up in bacta bandages and the young woman's face was lax in sleep. “What in the name of the Force happened?!”  
“Barriss, self-harming she has been,” Yoda spoke calmly but not without a tone of guilt.  
“ _How_?! How did _this_ go unnoticed?!” Ahsoka exclaimed with no small amount of accusation in her tone. The Jedi were responsible for their prisoner yet it had been allowed to get bad enough for the Mirialan to be self-harming. _You should be feeling guilty you senile old fool_  
“Hiding herself, she was.” The master Jedi spoke, attempting to placate the younger Knight with an explanation. It wasn't uncommon for Barriss to wear very modest clothing that covered almost every part of her skin “Young Offee, attacked last night, she was. Speak to Master Che, you will. Asking you to take young Offee to safety, I am”  
“Who attacked them?”  
“Know, we do not. Provide you with all the information we have, we will. Investigate, you can. Have somewhere to take Barriss, we will grant you” he had leaned his gimer stick up against a map of the Jedi Temple while he sat waiting for Ahsoka and Katooni

Yoda left Katooni and Ahsoka with Barriss and left to head off to wherever the Grandmaster went when he wasn't meeting the High Council. “Katooni, are you okay?” Ahsoka rested a hand on her Padawan’s shoulder and squeezed it slightly, a reassuring gesture she had used since Katooni had faced her first-ever battle in the war, a battle that resulted in her seeing her first clones fall to enemy blaster fire, and it had been even more traumatizing for Katooni to witness her first deaths than it had been for Ahsoka who had coped quite well considering  
“Why has Barriss got bandages on her arms, Master?” the innocent little Padawan's voice disturbed Ahsoka's thoughts after a few moments  
“Oh, Katty” Ahsoka sighed and looked down. “Barriss has been hurting herself, on purpose” _I wish you didn't need to know about this sorta thing_  
“Why would she do that!?” Katooni was horrified by the very idea of someone deliberately hurting themselves, even someone who had at one point fallen to the Dark Side

“Sometimes when someone is in unbearable emotional pain, they choose to translate that pain to physical pain” the Head Healer spoke from behind them both. “In Barriss’ case, the emotional pain from betraying you, Ahsoka, combined with her fall, were enough to force her to take matters into her own hands and since we couldn't sense her intentions through the inhibitors which make her appear to be just another non-sensitive, we couldn't sense her distress unless we went looking for it as she couldn't project it anymore, and we didn't know to look for it, no Jedi before her has been caught hurting themselves this way”  
Ahsoka sighed. “So what can be done about it?”  
“There’s a high security and secret bunker, far beneath the Temple’s inhabited sections. You can take Barriss there. Master Yoda asked me to pass this on to you. He’ll be along to speak to you about it soon”  
“But what about those that tried to hurt her?” Ahsoka demanded. Already a plan was beginning to form in the young Knight's head. She had just finished with Yoda who had been acting strange but she couldn't put her finger on how  
“I’m sorry, Knight Tano but I do not believe it was an external force that attacked Master Unduli” The Head Healer advised, though she didn't sound all that sorry about it. Luminara had been her friend for years  
“What do you mean by that?! Come on, enough with the Jedi half-truths!” Ahsoka's not so innocent mind had figured out what the Healer had meant but she needed it to be confirmed  
“I believe it was _Prisoner_ Offee who attacked Master Luminara.” The healer stated bluntly.  
“What the kriff?!” Ahsoka barked at the Healer  
“Once you start down the dark path...”  
“Forever will it dominate your destiny. You know, Master, I don't believe that _banthakark_ and neither should you” Ahsoka glared at the healer, shocking both the Healer and Katooni with her foul, aggressive language. “ _Leave us_ ”  
“As the person responsible for _Prisoner_ Offee, you have the right to make that decision.” Che acquiesced, albeit reluctantly, “I shall send in another Healer when it is time for her bacta to be changed”  
“Thank you” Ahsoka turned her back on the Healer and started rubbing her hand through Barriss' long hair, rousing the girl from her rest

“Mmm” the Mirialan murmured, _this is nice, keep doing that..._  
“Hey, Barriss”  
Barriss’ eyes shot open. “Ahsoka!” she exclaimed, immediately trying to sit up only to be stopped by Ahsoka's hand pressing her down.  
“Stay down, Barriss. It's okay. You were attacked but you're going to be fine”  
“I was... What? When?” Barriss started to splutter in her confusion. She hadn't remembered being attacked. The last thing she remembered was putting on her robes to go and sit by the window for a little while. The Mirialan had been hurting herself again, she couldn't get the inhibitors off so went around them, the skin above said inhibiting sleeves were all a mess of old scars and new wounds.  
Ahsoka's eyes drifted from Barriss' face toward her upper arm and the older girl’s heart leaped into her mouth at the realization that _Ahsoka_ had learned of her habit, her _weakness_ and she was shocked into silence by her _horror_ at the realization. “You're safe, Barriss. You’re in the Halls of Healing where they're treating your wounds”  
“Master Che hates me” the Mirialan mumbled. “She won't let me help out around the Halls of Healing. She won't speak to me”  
“That little...” Ahsoka glared over her shoulder at the Twi'lek and went back to pulling her fingers through Barriss’ hair and helping her to settle back into an uneasy sleep, Katooni by her side.

******

Ahsoka spent her time over the next few weeks hanging out in Barriss' quarters with a traumatized Mirialan for company, after Barriss had been cleared to be discharged from the Halls of Healing so long as someone remained with her which Katooni did at night and Ahsoka did during the day, her love and pride in her new apprentice increasing day by day as the young Tholothian put aside her discomfort to help the fallen Mirialan. Sadly, Luminara Unduli passed away without ever regaining consciousness, something that Ahsoka learned about late one evening when the Jedi Master’s Force Ghost appeared to her, causing her to shriek in undignified surprise. Barriss was already fast asleep and therefore Ahsoka was alone  
“Knight Tano” the Mirialan spoke calmly but Ahsoka could see the distress in the older Mirialan's face. She was sure to be blaming herself  
“Hey, uh, Master Unduli” Ahsoka’s bands darkened on her lekku, embarrassed to have shrieked the way she had. Jedi Knights _did not shriek_. At the same time, she was relieved that she was alone, Barriss and Katooni were in Barriss' bedroom and she wasn't, Katooni was watching over the young Mirialan as she slept. Ahsoka was in the living room Barriss had once shared with the deceased Jedi Master  
“You have to be careful.” The Master spoke in a mournful tone. “I stopped the woman who came to kill Barriss, but I was critically injured in the attack” Luminara continued in a mumble  
“How were you injured. You once held your own against Asajj Ventress”  
“Alas, the woman who attacked us could conceal herself using the Force, she was what I believe to be a _Shadow_. A cultist group of Jedi who use the Force to hunt and destroy anything they consider to be Sith. I wounded her, critically so if she didn't go to the Halls of Healing then well, she's most likely lying dead somewhere”  
“Sith? _You_?” Ahsoka scoffed. She hadn't really heard of Shadows before but seemed to recall one of Obi-Wan's friends, Quinlan Vos being a Shadow. It was more likely that Yoda was secretly a Sith than Luminara being one  
“Not me, Barriss. I was just... In their way” the Mirialan squirmed uneasily. “I owe you an apology, Knight Tano. I never thanked you for what you did to save Barriss. I’ve been so distant, so disappointed in her and I never even spoke to her to find out if she was okay. All of that” the Mirialan touched her upper arms and winced, “could have been avoided had I just spoken to her”  
“Her being attacked wasn't your fault” Ahsoka reassured  
“Maybe not. But her self-harming was”

Ahsoka didn't want to agree with the Mirialan Master but also didn't want to make it as if Luminara held no guilt so she decided to stay silent  
Correctly interpreting Ahsoka's silence, Luminara looked away guiltily. “I... I just didn't want anyone to hurt her, not really. I was angry and scared, but not for the reasons you seem to think. She... My _daughter_ almost ended up _dead_ , Ahsoka!!”  
“I know. _I_ saved her life” Ahsoka growled, the older woman’s words touching a sore spot for the Togruta. _Where the fek were you when I was saving her life?!_  
“I'm so sorry. I should have been there for her. I should've put aside my fear and been there for her, not just after the bombing but before it too. Oh, gods, it's all my fault!!”  
_I can't really disagree with you_  
Luminara had been reduced to loud, uncomfortable sobs by the realization that she was one of the few who could have stopped Barriss' fall. “She... She even came to me and asked me not to be reassigned to the front. She wanted to pursue her healing and I _didn't let her_. The Healers are always so overworked yet I needed her in the battles. I put my needs before hers!!”  
“Master” Ahsoka winced at the devolving state of Luminara’s calm  
“Call me Luminara, young one”  
“Luminara. You were there for her, when it really mattered, you _saved her life_!” Ahsoka exclaimed  
“I just hope it's enough to redeem myself in her eyes, and yours as well”  
_Mine?_ Ahsoka questioned herself, she was rather surprised that a Jedi Master would hold her opinion in such high esteem  
Her confusion must have shown on her face as Luminara continued speaking, “Yes. Your eyes. You're important to my Padawan so therefore you’re important to me. I wanted to apologize to you, will you pass my apologies on to Barriss?”  
“You will apologize to her yourself, one day. Maybe not today, but you will soon, I have foreseen it” Ahsoka spoke firmly  
Luminara's eyes widened, not many Jedi could see through the veil of the Dark Side, though that smothering blanket had eased up some since Ahsoka brought Barriss back to the Temple, not that Luminara or the other Jedi understood what had changed. They weren't aware that a Sith Shrine had been condemned to the exceedingly hot magma of Coruscant's mantle by two young women, one a fallen Jedi, the other a Padawan. “I also like your actual eyes, they're pretty. I can see why Barriss likes to stare at holoimages of them. Tell me, young one, weren't they blue?”  
Ahsoka felt her lekku bands darken, the Togrutii equivalent to blushing. “I... uh, yea. They were blue. But ever since...” she trailed off, Mortis was still considered highly classified and neither she nor Anakin or Obi-Wan had ever spoken of it to anyone other than the High Council. “Something happened to me on one of my missions and I woke up with green eyes.” She decided to ignore the rest of Luminara's comment. Both she and Barriss had grown ever closer in the snippets of time they had spent together after the older Mirialan's therapy sessions, but that was _their_ secret. _Maybe tonight I'll kiss Barriss, see how it feels and whether she likes it_

With that, the specter of Luminara Unduli faded into nothingness, leaving a foul taste in Ahsoka's mouth. _Oh great. Now I gotta tell Barriss that Luminara is dead. At least she had her chance at redemption, a chance to save her daughter_

******

Ahsoka Tano was resting in Barriss' quarters later the same night that Luminara had visited her when she felt an overwhelming feeling of _danger_ in the Force. The Togruta ignited her lightsaber and allowed the Force to guide it behind her back. An orange blade erupted into existence and clashed with the shoto blade of the youngest Knight in the history of the Jedi Order, and not a moment too soon, had Ahsoka hesitated at all, she would have been sliced up her spine. The glow of the orange blade gave the illusion that Ahsoka’s skin was pure white. “Impressive, Tano” a disembodied voice spoke from in front of the Togruta who lit her main lightsaber and held it out in front of her  
“You are tricking me” Ahsoka spoke firmly, disengaging her primary lightsaber and once again impressing the mysterious attacker. She was strong with the Light Side of the Force, strong enough to be able to pierce the veil of the Dark Side that had fallen over them all  
“Very impressive indeed. Had you not fallen, you would have made a great Shadow, young one” the disembodied voice spoke once again  
“I haven't fallen. You have. You're attacking a Jedi, your own people” Ahsoka replied, gripping _hard_ on her frustration  
“I'm here to eliminate Offee. Tell me where she is and I might decide to let you live” the disembodied voice spoke, the stranger’s body shimmering and appearing before her, the being's singular yellowish green eye gazing appraisingly at the Togruta  
“Never.” Ahsoka declared “You'll have to kill me to find her. And even then, you'll never find her. My Padawan isn't in the Temple and neither is she”  
“You lie!!” the woman hissed. She was a species that the Togruta wasn't overly familiar with.  
“I don't. You just can't see it. The Dark Side clouds everyone's vision after all”  
“But not yours seemingly?” Ahsoka didn't reply. “I'm an Abyssin” the female Jedi explained with a hiss reminiscent of the Trandoshans that had kidnapped Ahsoka what felt like a lifetime ago having realized that Ahsoka had no idea what she was  
“No actually.” Ahsoka ignited her primary saber again and almost impaled the mysterious female Abyssin who only just blocked at the last second. She swung her shoto in a killing blow, though the Shadow blocked both that and the strike from the main blade. “I have a somewhat... Unique connection to the Force. Have done ever since I died”  
“You are most impressive, young one” the Abyssin acknowledged  
Ahsoka remained calm and collected, her lightsaber blades clashing randomly with the other Jedi who, despite being a lot older and therefore far more experienced, was struggling to keep up with the athleticism of the younger Jedi who leaped around her and utilized both her lightsabers with a level near that of a Jedi Master. “You will not hurt Barriss” the Jedi Knight growled  
“Oh, I'll make it quick, merciful, I promise, just like I will do for you as well. You shouldn’t have gotten attached to her”  
With a cry, Ahsoka used both her sabers to slice up the Shadow’s dual bladed lightsaber and held both of hers in a cross against the Abyssin's neck with a feral smile. “You. Lose.”  
“No matter, my colleagues will succeed where I failed. Barriss and Katooni are hidden by Force inhibitors?” the elder Jedi hummed appreciatively at the ingeniousness of the plan, “That is indeed most impressive. I see now why my Master didn't want me to fight against you directly”  
“Who is your Master?” Ahsoka growled, “You tell me and I'll make this quick. You don't... Well...” She didn't finish  
“You are supposedly a Jedi” The Abyssin complained, aware of the boiling plasma hovering inches from her neck  
“Strange, I thought you accused me of being a Sith”  
“You _wouldn't_...” her eyes bulged with the pain of the lightsaber being brought to her shoulder, burning through her robes in a matter of seconds and biting into her green skin causing her to groan in agony  
“Tell. Me. Your. Master” Ahsoka waved her hand in front of the assassin's face  
“I will tell you my Master's name” the elder Jedi hissed, leaned forward and whispered into the Togruta’s montral. The orange-skinned Jedi’s green eyes widened and her face was a perfect picture of horror.  
“It can't be...”  
“You'd better believe it. My Master never did like you, but he grew reluctantly respectful...” the Abyssin never had the chance to finish, Ahsoka had remained calm and collected but had chopped the being’s head off. She refused to give in to her darker instincts and remained firmly in the Light even as she did what she had to do

Ahsoka leaped out of the room, barely evading the humming of two lightsabers that had been aimed at her throat and sprinted away from the room that had belonged to Barriss and Luminara. “I'm sorry!” she cried, “why are you attacking me?!” and she began to lead them on a merry chase through the Temple, biding her time in preparation for the final moments that she knew she'd know when she knew it

******

“You were fooled, _Knight_ ” the orange-skinned Togruta grinned a sharp teeth-filled and predatory grin at the four Shadows that had pursued her up and down the length and breadth of the Jedi Temple in a chase that culminated at one of the many turbolifts. They had dashed through Youngling classrooms, sprinted through gardens, barrelled through sparring halls and leaped from roof to roof in a chase that had lasted a good two hours. “The simple truth is I not only know who ordered your strike, who your Master is. I also know that you will kill my friend which means I can't let you go any further”  
“You might be a Knight now, Tano. But we're _far_ beyond your capabilities.” One of the Shadows corrected with a grin that was almost as predatory as Ahsoka's had been. “And as you're getting in our way, as you interfered in one of our missions to kill the Sith, we are honor-bound to kill you as well, _Sith_ ” The man hissed  
“Oh, I know I’ll never be able to beat you in time to save Barriss” the Togruta peeked over their shoulders, going up on her tiptoes to see over the man's shoulder. _It is time_. “But you might not be beyond them!” she leaped into the turbolift shaft with a grunt, just as the sound of footfalls drowned out the sound of the doors sealing shut  
Click whine, click whine, click whine, click whine. The sound of blasters priming filled the ears of the four remaining Jedi. About twenty clones had arrived and had surrounded the four Jedi, unbeknownst to the Shadows, Ahsoka alone had sensed _danger_ and had known to flee. One Trooper with an extra itchy trigger finger, Kix, shot a bolt at the Jedi that caught one of them on the right side of his chest. The robed man dropped with barely a grunt, dead before he even hit the ground  
“We're Shadows!” the lead man exclaimed at the Troopers, one of whom had just executed one of his best men, the other had died against Ahsoka in Offee's quarters. “We’re Jedi, chasing down a wanted fugitive or two!” He had begun to panic at the realization that perhaps the Togruta had been right, that she and Barriss weren't really the ones the Shadows should be worried about  
“Good soldiers follow orders” the Troopers droned as one  
“What?”  
“Good soldiers follow orders” the lead Trooper repeated  
“Commander? Rex, wasn't it? What orders are you following?” the lead Shadow asked, nerves alight with tension and he reluctantly acknowledged his _fear_  
“Good soldiers follow orders” the Trooper lifted his blasters again, the other Troopers following their Commander’s lead and unleashing a hailstorm of blaster bolts at the group of three Jedi who pulled out their lightsabers and ignited them to deflect back the blaster bolts. Most of the blaster bolts were redirected and slammed into the Troopers that fired them but some ended up getting through. First, the lead Shadow's redheaded comrade fell to a bolt to the hand, then the Shadow himself fell to a bolt to the face. He screamed and fell to the floor where he didn't move again while the redhead writhed, panted and sweated. Once two had fallen, the other two were quick to fall as well. They fell to the flamethrowers that two Troopers of the Five-Oh-First had brought to bear on their enemies, leaving nothing other than scorched bodies in the wake of the brutal skirmish. Rex removed his brand new helmet and had nodded in satisfaction. The Three-Three-Second had been reabsorbed into the Five-Oh-First earlier that evening in preparation for a march on the Jedi Temple under the command of the newly christened Darth Vader. Ahsoka had been too busy fighting for her life to pay too much attention to her bond with Anakin Skywalker

Ahsoka had taken the opportunity to flee and had fallen down the turbolift shaft, scratching her montrals several times but eventually arriving far beneath the inhabited sections of the Temple. She landed softly using her lightsabers to slow her descent enough to not be killed. She knew that it would be difficult to get out of the turbolift shaft since it was all reinforced and electromagnetically sealed so Ahsoka had to use her lightsaber and bare hands to rewire some of the security, enduring multiple defensive shocks from it that would have killed a lesser Jedi or indeed anyone without the Force. After several tense moments, she had disabled the electromagnets, used the Force to open the shaft doors and leaped through the doors to evade falling with the falling elevator car that had plummeted out from beneath her the moment she bypassed security.

Walking the short distance to the blast doors blocking her path, she lifted her communicator and passed through the doors once they opened. She had been amazed at first at the sight of the cortosis-reinforced walls and blast doors but had gotten even more overwhelmed when she saw the inside of the bunker, twelve opulent suites, one for each of the Master Jedi on the High Council. _Those lucky karks_ she had thought. Ahsoka walked the short distance to the suite that she, Barriss and Katooni were sharing. Katooni had set up a cot in the mediation room of the same suite Ahsoka and Barriss slept in, it had been necessary for Ahsoka to spend as long as possible away from the young Mirialan as the Shadows had been using her presence in the Force to find their target. Ahsoka spent the nights sleeping in Barriss' old quarters in an effort to draw them out, an effort that had succeeded. With the situation resolved, she moved over to Barriss and kissed her cheek to wake her up  
“Mm. ‘Soka” she mumbled, rolling over and gazing at her best friend with love in her eyes  
“Hey, Barriss. It's over. The Troopers killed the Shadows”  
“The troopers? What were they doing in...” Barriss trailed off at the realization that Ahsoka had fallen on top of her, shrieking and writhing from the agony of over nine thousand deaths that were searing at her force senses. “ _Katooni_!! Katooni, _help_!!” Barriss shrieked at the wall between the meditation room and the bedroom

Katooni sprinted in and swore like a pirate at the sight of her master writhing in such intense agony and ran off again, returning moments later with something in her hands. She quickly latched them on to her master’s arms and the Togruta’s agonized writhing and screaming lessened slowly until she was totally unresponsive in the bliss of unconsciousness


	4. Part IV: Battles of the Heroes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Order Sixty-Six has been implemented. The Jedi have fallen. 
> 
> Can Ahsoka Tano successfully divert destiny?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we are, the main event.

Ahsoka Tano groaned as she slowly regained consciousness, she felt cold, dissociated, weak. After taking a few moments to regain her what little she could of her strength the Jedi Knight sat up slowly, her head throbbing from the aftermath of the thousands of deaths that had pounded away against her consciousness and even though that had only been happening for a matter of moments, she still felt worse than ever before. Furthermore she couldn't feel the energy that had swirled around her ever since she had been a Youngling for only the second time in her life and that caused her to panic. Finding her lightsabers by her bed she first attempted to call them to her hands which didn't work so she scooped them up into her hands and ignited them. _What the?!_ Ahsoka looked down and saw the familiar sleeves on her arms, her connection to the Force was being inhibited, for some reason.  
“Master?” a distant voice called, the voice seemed so distant that it almost didn't register in the Togruta’s awareness, her awareness was mostly limited to the tightness in her chest, focused on the lack of her sixth sense. “Master!”  
Ahsoka looked around and saw a teenage girl stood there in the middle of the room, her dark brown skin standing out amongst the light tones of the bedroom she was in. “Katty?” the Jedi Knight croaked, relieved and reassured by the presence of her young Padawan, _everything must be okay_  
“Oh Master, I was so worried!” the young Padawan chucked herself into Ahsoka's arms and the Togrutan Knight dropped her sabers onto the bed, their blades disengaging as they fell down toward the bed under the influence of gravity  
“Oof” Ahsoka grunted when she was hit by a hundred twenty pounds of Tholothian and wrapped her arms around her Padawan, striving her hardest in order to disregard her thumping head that felt as if she had been subjected to a blow from one of Grievous's metal limbs  
“How do you feel, Master?”  
“Sore, Katty.” There was just something in the way the Tholothian asked that told Ahsoka she wouldn't be accepting platitudes  
“I have some painkillers and some bacta, if that's what you need”

Impressed by her Padawan’s resourcefulness, the Knight nodded and accepted some bacta for her scratched montrals and the other minor wounds she had from fighting the Shadows the day before, as well as two shots of painkillers for her thumping head. “What... What happened?” she asked quietly, timidly for she remembered nothing beyond the agony that had torn through her mind, agony so bad that she hadn't even been able to escape into unconsciousness until the agony she was enduring had been abruptly severed by something. Ahsoka Tano wasn't one to be timid so on the rare occasion she was those around her knew to be extra careful with her. Katooni was no different and the smart Tholothian had a strong suspicion that Ahsoka already suspected what had happened but didn't want to accept it  
“Uh... The Jedi are all gone” Another voice spoke from over by the door, almost too scared to enter. The young woman in question stayed just out of sight while explaining what had occurred. “The Temple was attacked. Several Masters tried to contact the Temple while you were unconscious but their emergency calls were rerouted down here. Suffice to say they were less than happy to see me safe” the Mirialan added bitterly, “but some were happy to see you were okay, Master Ti in particular. She was cut off halfway through the transmission but ordered us to stay here with you, to protect you. I would've done so without being told to of course.” What she didn't say was that the comms were being jammed  
Ahsoka narrowed her eyes. Barriss hadn't yet told her what had actually happened, had been offering her the same vague truths she would have offered Katooni had that girl not looked so scared, so open, so earnest. “Truth. All of it. _Now_.” Ahsoka growled. It was _not_ the time to test her patience  
“Fine” Barriss looked away, she hadn't wanted to tell Ahsoka any of that just yet. “The Jedi were betrayed and attacked by the Clones, our own army turned on us for some inexplicable reason. It happened simultaneously across the galaxy and wiped out a good ninety-nine percent of the Order and we don't know exactly how many survived but best estimates say barely a hundred Jedi survived, out of ten thousand. It was a slaughter, Katooni and I only became aware of it because of the way you reacted. Katooni brazenly took her inhibitors off for a few seconds and... Well, she reacted the same as you.” _It truly was a dangerous, foolhardy thing to do, worthy of Skywalker and his Padawan's lineage_  
“Are you okay?!” Ahsoka turned to Katooni and pulled her in close. The young Knight was very protective of her Padawan, she had learned that from her own Master who loved fiercely and would go to almost any length to protect those he loved. She was pretty much the same.  
“I'm fine, Master” The young Tholothian replied honestly, having expected to be scolded for her recklessness and felt amazed and full of affection for her when her Master only showed worry instead of the disappointment that any other Master would've shown. The young Padawan had felt tortured at the agony the Force had been in but the actual slaughter had been over so quickly. Mace Windu, Cin Drallig, Luminara Unduli, Plo Koon, Saesee Tiin, Yaddle, Petro, Gungi and thousands of others had been slaughtered across the cosmos, but one upside to the Order being simultaneous was that only the tumultuous aftermath of the death of the Jedi Order remained to hit Katooni’s Force senses whereas her Master had taken the full brunt of it, thousands upon thousands of deaths.  
“I'm glad... Barriss, how do you feel?” An orange hand reached out for a green one as the owner of said hand spoke  
“Like poodoo.” The Mirialan grumbled, full of self-loathing. “I had a chance, I was supposed to stop this, stop the war in its tracks” _It’s all my fault_.  
“You know as well as I do that bombing the Temple wouldn't have changed _anything_ , Barriss.” Ahsoka immediately replied, correctly guessing that the Mirialan would have started beating herself up over what had happened, which often seemed to be the vulnerable green-skinned woman's default reaction to anything terrible that happened during the past year or two of the war. “That wouldn't have stopped the Council driving the Jedi to extinction, to their own self-destruction. I have to admit I truly believe now that the Jedi Order was doomed the moment it took a side in a political struggle, a war we shouldn't have been in.” Ahsoka wiped her eyes. Plo Koon had been one of the ones to become one with the Force, she knew that because in his last few seconds he reached out to her through their bond and sent her overwhelming feelings of pride in all she had achieved. “I do wonder where the Jedi went wrong though... how the Council became the very thing they all swore to destroy, an army fighting for the Dark Side”  
“Yeah, I guess you're right. You seemed to calm down when I hugged you, you were having nightmares” Barriss replied, she had often wondered where their leader, a being who was supposedly as wise as they came had misstepped so badly and gotten almost everyone killed  
_Nightmares? I don't remember those_. Ahsoka shrugged, suddenly very aware of how close she and Barriss were to one another. Her lekku darkened almost instantaneously as Barriss remembered where she was. “It was nice, sleeping cuddled against you, just like old times, just like after Geonosis” Ahsoka admitted cautiously, she had been able to sense Barriss’ presence in the Force even when almost in a coma from overexposure to the deaths of almost everyone she had ever known. Of those she had known, only Padme, Riyo, Lux and Hondo were certain to still be alive, and even then possibly only for a short while longer, at least for some of them. Ahsoka only admitted that fact because only Barriss and her Padawan were present after all and she had grown sick of the emotional isolation that came with being a Jedi. The Jedi Council could no longer expel her for harboring an illicit attachment as it needed a majority vote of seven or more to do so and they weren't even sure that seven members of the High Council still lived. Chances were Yoda would be okay regardless of whatever faced him, but, since Mace Windu died ten minutes after three other members of the High Council died within minutes, seconds of each other, in the same place, she wasn't hopeful that any of the others had survived. Plo Koon had perished in the Purge when he was shot down, Stass Allie also died when the clones turned on their superiors. That left Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda at most though their fates hadn't yet been revealed. Shaak Ti might also have survived, if she was lucky but even with her and assuming they all agreed to expel her, it still wouldn't be enough. Besides, Ahsoka needed the support of her best friend after experiencing the full horror of the fall of the Jedi, of those thousands of minds becoming overwhelmed by fear before they disappeared into the flow of the Force. In light of the horrific events, Ahsoka had finally chosen to accept those feelings she had always had for the older woman but had always pushed aside in pursuit of being that perfect Jedi everyone wanted from her. Feelings she had struggled with every time she ever snuggled into Barriss' back as the big spoon in their shared tent on whatever joint missions they had been sent on

Nearly a half-hour passed in almost complete silence where the three survivors huddled together on the bed, Ahsoka simply enjoying the feeling of not being alone even if her bonds with the two other females had been cut off by the inhibitors. Ahsoka eventually stood and headed into the adjoining ‘fresher where she stepped into the shower and sighed in relief at the scalding hot water raining down on her, she found it beyond relaxing. “Y'know, 'Soka? I'm not ungrateful that you listened to me and stuck your neck out for me when they were trying to have me executed for crimes I didn't even commit” Barriss’ voice came from just outside the shower, inside the 'fresher but outside of the actual cubicle the water rained down in, it wasn't the first, or even the hundredth time she had done so, or vice versa. “I'm so grateful to have you as a friend. In fact, I don't know if I would’ve made it had you not been there. I probably would’ve died way back when actually. The brain worm would've finished everyone off, assuming I would've survived the droid factory” _Unlikely considering how quickly Master Luminara wrote me off_. Barriss thought bitterly then berated herself. Luminara had gotten hurt protecting her after all, and Ahsoka hadn’t yet had a chance to tell Barriss that her Master was gone  
“I know you're not ungrateful” Ahsoka replied, calmly trying to sort through her feelings. “Barriss... I know now's probably not the best time, but I sorta have a bad feeling, like I'm not gonna make it”  
“Don’t say that!” Barriss shrieked, earning a concerned glance from a young Tholothian that had been meditating from where she had been led with her Master and her Master’s best friend  
“I have to. I love you, Barriss. As in I'm in love with you”

Barriss was slack-jawed at the truth but instead of confronting the issue, she sprinted into the 'fresher to have a much needed and calming shower, one with water. As a Jedi, she hadn't been taught how to deal with a confession of that nature and she hadn't even tried to bring it up considering how close to a bad end her relationship with the High Council had been. One slip-up would’ve been all it would've taken to end in her death or the loss of her memories or however else the Jedi had originally intended to punish her before Ahsoka intervened on her behalf

*****

Neither Barriss nor Ahsoka breached the truth that Ahsoka shared once Barriss was out of the shower and, while Barriss had harbored secret feelings toward the younger Jedi, she hadn't ever been forced to confront them in such an open way and had cut and run as a result, she knew it was cowardly but she didn't know how else to react. She hadn't yet worked it out how her whole reasoning for the bombing was to free Ahsoka from the war, how that whole scheme had come into being from her love of the younger Padawan. Had Barriss been able to force the Jedi to confront their true identities, what they had truly become, maybe they would have at least stopped sending children out to die even if the hope of them abandoning the whole war was too much to hope to expect. She understood the impossible position the Jedi had been put in, at least on an intellectual level, fight for the Republic or be branded as traitors and most likely wiped out, not that participation in the war had saved them from such a fate, in the end. But maybe it would've been enough to get Ahsoka and the other children out of the situation even if it had cost Barriss her soul to achieve. Only one being was capable of such a vile act such as genocide, and it wasn't Dooku. It must have been Sidious. The old traitor had been right when he spoke to Obi-Wan Kenobi on Geonosis. Darth Sidious really did exist after all and he had presumably been behind everything

Both the Master and her Padawans held their breaths as they peeped through the doors of the Destroyed turbolift that led to the main Temple Complex from where they had been hidden. They had unlatched their Force inhibitors but had kept them on so that they would continue to appear invisible to everyone that was out to get them. They knew the Troopers had turned on the Jedi, but as Darth Sidious was really real they couldn't risk any chance of being discovered, the Sith Lord would be exceedingly powerful in the Force and might pick them up from wherever he was, even if he was thousands of light-years away on Byss, as an example. Ahsoka may have been one of the best at lightsaber combat but Mace Windu himself couldn't beat Sidious and he was one of very few who had always ranked higher than the Togruta. The three girls had spent a few hours piecing together what had happened the night before from encrypted communications. Apparently, Anakin Skywalker had gone to Windu about the Sith Lord's identity and the Koruni master of Vaapad had taken a team to arrest the man who was the Sith Lord but the Sith had won their fight and retaliated with the genocide of almost every Jedi, the complexity of his plan indicated it had been decades in the making. The three Jedi had chosen to bide their time in waiting for a chance to emerge from the shaft and did so only when the Force told them it was safe to do so for something as measly as Force inhibitors weren't able to do too much against the full might of the Force, something that Ahsoka seemed to play a unique role in. They had made quick progress up the elevator shaft even without the Force, or at least two of them lacked the Force. Ahsoka was bouncing up the shaft with little difficulty even though the inhibitors were engaged, her green eyes ablaze  
“ _Schutta_ ” Barriss murmured, catching sight of just what had happened in their home the night before. Jedi were led out all over the Temple, some led in a pool of their own blood from being hacked apart by vibroblade, others had burn injuries consistent with blasters but some, like several of the many Younglings, had wounds that looked to have been inflicted by a lightsaber. Hearing muttered swearing, the Knight and her Padawans headed off toward the noise, against Barriss' natural misgivings. The Mirialan followed the Togruta in a display that showed the depths of their friendship, the new Barriss Offee wouldn't follow many others toward a sound that could signify their own deaths, the Mirialan she had become no longer fully trusted the Jedi after such a long and grueling war. She would have definitely followed Ahsoka, probably would've followed Katooni and maybe for Luminara, had she still been alive. Ahsoka had finally told Barriss that Luminara had passed away in her coma and that she hadn't suffered though it hadn’t really been a suitable time for a lengthy discussion of the Mirialan's former Master  
“Motherkarking piece of schutta!!” a rough feminine voice snarled followed by the shattering of a bottle of some kind. The female had gone to drink what she had thought was an alcoholic drink only to find it wasn't alcoholic at all, it was blue milk

“ _Ventress_!?” Katooni and Ahsoka exclaimed at the same time, recognizing the voice once they'd gotten close enough for it not to be distorted by the endless echoes through the silent Temple. They had both gotten to know Ventress quite well, at least as well as anyone else ever managed to get to know her. In the months since Ahsoka had managed to gain the former assassin's help in saving Barriss, the Bounty Hunter hadn't been quite so abrasive toward the Togruta who had, in turn, introduced her to her Padawan but had hissed and spat on the rare occasion the Ventress had used Katty, that was _Ahsoka's_ nickname for her Padawan and nobody else was allowed to use it, not even Skyguy  
“What in the name of all the _hells_ are you doing here” Ahsoka snapped loudly only to be shushed by two other anxious Jedi, “don't you get it? It's _dangerous_ here!!”  
“Boo hoo, I've been taking risks since before you were born, kid” Ventress snarked back. To anyone who wasn't the Togruta or the young Tholothian, it simply sounded like the pissy attitude of the Bounty Hunter, but under the layers of snark, Ahsoka knew Ventress cared  
“Yea but this is an army...” Ahsoka attempted to argue  
“Been there done that” Ventress dismissed and it was true. She had faced the Clone Troopers many times, and the armies of the CIS several times  
“Fair” the Togruta acknowledged reluctantly, “but you're still crazy...”  
“I'm here for the alcohol that I know the Order hoards from donations since it doesn't use it and it doesn't send it out” Ventress finally gave some ground, much to the Mirialan's shock. The Dathomirian was being downright _friendly_ toward the Togruta  
“Go down three levels and go to storage room fifteen-A, then get the fek outta here, Asajj... _Understand!?_ ”  
The Dathomirian sighed but nodded. “I get it. Believe it or not, I'm not suicidal, besides, I haven't seen a single Trooper in my...” Ventress trailed off all of a sudden at the sound of voices

“If into the security recordings you go, only pain will you find”  
_Master Yoda!!_ The thought crossed the three girls’ minds at the exact same moment and the three of them charged forward  
“I have to know” Obi-Wan replied  
“Yoda! Master Yoda!” Ahsoka called, Obi-Wan had already disappeared into the security booth to check the recordings  
“Knight Tano. To see you survived, brings warm feelings to my heart”  
“I'm so relieved to see you...” Ahsoka dropped down to her knees and cautiously hugged the elderly Master. “How many are left?”  
Yoda just shrugged. A very bad sign. He genuinely had no idea how many survived beyond the five of them in that room

“It’s Anaki...” Obi-Wan stopped at the sight of Ahsoka. “Hi, Ahsoka”  
“What about Anakin?!” Ahsoka had a sense of foreboding, _I have a bad feeling about this..._ She thought and it turned out things were far worse than she had ever expected.  
The next ten minutes blasted past for Ahsoka, the young Knight barely remembered it, the horror of being dragged in front of the holorecording that showed Anakin Skywalker, her Skyguy, slaughtering Younglings because she had refused to believe it and the awful feeling from the Force that urged her addled, traumatized mind to act. The next thing she knew she had said a very heartfelt goodbye to Barriss Offee, kissing her on the lips and was met with tears yet joy at the release of the emotions they shared and had landed on the roof of a tall building near Padme’s penthouse, having put a tracker on the woman during an anxiety-inducing yet heartfelt hug and was silently lying in wait to pursue her to wherever Anakin had gone off to. She didn't know what had possessed her to argue that she should be the one to go after Anakin while Obi-Wan and Yoda went to deal with Palpatine other than the gentle nudging of the Force that whispered _fate_ in her montrals. It had been decided that Barriss would remain in Katooni’s care, much to the Mirialan's distaste and despair. She didn't want Ahsoka to sprint headfirst into perhaps the most dangerous thing she had ever done without backup but Ahsoka had insisted that she go it alone

The young Togruta didn't have to wait long, the _Twilight II_ , the original _Twilight_ having been destroyed, had been set down atop the roof for a mere ten minutes when Padme set off, pursuing her husband and the Togruta jumped into hyperspace the moment Padme came back out at her destination. Mustafar. The young Knight pushed the poor ship hard and it emerged from hyperspace at the exact moment Anakin Skywalker lost his temper, which had resulted in a massive disturbance in the Force. Gunning the engines, the Togruta leaped out of the ship and landed softly behind Anakin who was choking his wife. “Let her go, Sky... Uh, Anakin. _Let her go_ ” Ahsoka demanded, doing her best to ignore the heat that had already caused her to sweat what felt like almost all the water in her body, the foul taste of the ash that blew in her mouth every time she opened it and the overwhelmingly disguising smell of sulfur all reminded her how uninhabitable the whole planet was to most forms of life. The ship she had arrived in spiraled down into the ash a short distance from the processing facility where the shields collapsed and it subsequently exploded

“She turned on me. Obi-Wan turned my own wife against me, Snips, can you _believe_ that?” Anakin whined petulantly  
“I believe you did that yourself. Your lust for power destroyed everything” Ahsoka retaliated. _Wife? I knew they were serious but... That's commitment_ Both Ahsoka and Obi-Wan had been running interference to prevent anyone learning of Anakin's love for the Senator of Naboo for as long as Ahsoka had known her Master  
“You will not turn against me!” Anakin barked, beginning to rage  
“You are the one who's turned against everything you've ever loved”  
“I'm the only one who remained loyal”  
“Loyal to what? To the Jedi? To the Republic? To the _Sith_?”  
“Ahsoka. Join me, we can overthrow Sidious. Take what's rightfully ours. You can be with your girlfriend without having to hide it from that incompetent Council. I can save my wife. My Master has given me special dispensation to offer you a full position in our new Empire. You could become a Moff, or a high ranking Inquisitor, or even _Darth Desparius_ , Dark Lady of the Sith, my apprentice once again”  
“I'm sorry, Anakin...” Ahsoka whispered, she wouldn't ever willingly agree to joining the Sith  
“If you're not with me, then you’re my enemy!!”

Anakin leaped into action, leaping over Ahsoka and slashing at her back with his blue lightsaber that still screamed with all the lives it had ended the night before only for him to be deprived of his easy win when Ahsoka spun around, drawing her shoto as she did so and blocked the killing blow with the yellowy-green blade. “I am so sorry, Anakin”  
“Spare me your pathetic Jedi ideals!” he snapped, snarling and crazed on the Dark Side that fueled his actions, his drive to cut down the girl who had once upon a time been his Padawan learner, his sister, his daughter.  
“You are lost if you believe the Jedi are evil, if you believe _I_ am evil” It had broken her heart to hear Anakin imply that she was evil

The Sith Apprentice merely snarled and spun his blade around even faster. Had the Togruta not had two blades, he would have already taken her head off but as it was she was blocking, redirecting, or dodging every blow, for now.  
His savage uppercut was met by Ahsoka’s primary blade that had burst into existence at the behest of its master, swinging the green blade across from her right to block a blow that would have rent her in two from her groin to her throat and the following shove he angled into the blade in an attempt to dislodge her saber to give him a chance to finish it was redirected by a subtle twist of a slim orange wrist. All of a sudden he found himself on the defensive. He had taught the apprentice exceedingly well and she was using her natural athleticism to evade blow after blow, to attack from every conceivable direction even as he used his more powerful body and connection to the Force to rain blow after blow down on the younger Jedi, any single one of which would have left her a broken mess on the floor, her arms uselessly shattered had she blocked his moves head-on instead of redirecting or dodging. They continued the deadly dance, alternating between attack and defense, each taking it in turns, the Knight had surprised him by her ability to counteract his moves no matter how powerful even as she pushed back against the slow progress he was making toward shoving her into the control room of the facility, amongst and fully ignoring the first few bodies of the fallen Separatist leaders that had been fleeing when Vader had murdered them in cold blood. She still moved confidently regardless of the blaster bolts that threatened to tear through them, bolts that she was evading with relative ease while also triggering the blasters herself in an attempt to bring Anakin down. His strength in the Force was just too much, was absolutely overwhelming and yet he couldn’t land a killing blow on the far less experienced Togruta  
“Kark!” she cried, her arms wavering for a moment as another heavy blow struck her marginally weaker yellowish blade, the shoto moving more as a result of the impact than her primary blade in her right hand would have. He had a predatory gaze set on his face as he focused the majority of his blows to that side, pushing her further back down the corridor from the outside and into the control room where they had all the room they needed. He realized his mistake even as Ahsoka began to twirl around once again, preferring to intercept his heavier blows with her right blade. They both continued to ignore the bodies surrounding them except to dodge or redirect the occasional blaster bolt that came too close, Vader felt no remorse at his cold-blooded murder and Ahsoka didn't exactly feel sad at their deaths; their deaths meant the war could finally be over

Anakin quickly grew fed up, putting all his concentration into spinning his blade up around him, an action that the Togruta was mimicking without conscious thought, her green blades whizzing past her face and making her eyes look completely white whenever they buzzed past. Once he had shown off enough, he slammed his blade into Ahsoka’s, the Knight having created an X shape with the blades to intercept his ‘saber, the force of the blow leaving small cracks in the bones of her arms. Her foot came up and kicked Anakin in the gut even as he lifted his spare hand to shove her back with the Force which he commanded with even more brutality than normal, catapulting her and several corpses back into some control panel that looked kinda important while he flew back, winded from the much more precise Force-enhanced kick from the Togruta that would’ve shattered the hips and probably the spine of any normal sentient, any normal force-user who wasn't drawing so heavily on the Dark Side. He slammed into some random screen even as Ahsoka fell to her hands and knees, winded by slamming into the wall and then the control panel.

“Ouch...” she groaned, flipping herself back on to her feet, Anakin was already on his feet and beginning his hate-fueled charge once more which left Ahsoka no choice but to attack head-on, to meet power with power, lethal blow with lethal blow. “Traitorous schutta!” the young woman shrieked, leaping toward the man who had been her Master and swinging her main blade in her first truly lethal swing of the battle. At first, she had hoped to reason with him but the sulfuric yellow eyes had finally made an appearance and had finally convinced her that _maybe_ her Master was truly gone like Yoda always had insisted, overwritten by the evil Darth Vader, she knew she didn't exactly have the chance to find out. She had been forced to push aside her attempts to fathom out why Anakin, no Vader had done what he had done, why he was going down the path of darkness for the life-and-death struggle she was caught up in took every single iota of her concentration just to evade death for another moment. That was what the battle took for her, action and reaction on a second by second basis, she had no time to think ahead, no time to plan and was fighting by the seat of her pants for every single blow, any one of which would easily kill her. She still couldn't really believe she was fighting her own Master but what did it matter. Deny it or not, her fight with Vader for the right to survive was simply what was happening. She knew to deny it would be a disservice and potentially risk costing her the struggle

Vader intercepted Ahsoka’s blow mid-air and bodily slammed into her, knocking her off balance enough for her to start to topple backward. “No...!” She cried, backflipping and cartwheeling past and over every blow he threw until he threw the lightsaber itself. Barely having time to react, the youngest Knight in the history of the Order pulled her own green plasma sword around in midair and somehow managed to avoid getting impaled though it had cost her a part of her rear lek, something the woman knew was bound to throb in the morning as lek were incredibly sensitive, when she had gotten over her adrenaline high, if she survived. In the same move that had her flying through the air to avoid the flying hazard that was Vader's blue blade, she brought up her main saber to deflect Vader's saber which embedded itself in one of the control panels resulting in a worrying alarm beginning to wail as the entire facility’s heat shielding and lava suppression began to collapse beneath them

Vader and Ahsoka ignored the sudden situation that was developing around them in favor of continuing to batter each other's lightsabers, their fight leaving a trail of destruction in their wake, the structural damage caused to the tunnel they had entered through had been enough to cause a collapse, destroying their only other way out other than a door that led out onto a balcony over the seething lava rivers hundreds of meters beneath them. Taking the out after momentarily disabling his mechanical hand with the Force to give her a chance while he fumbled to pick up his saber, Ahsoka backflipped through the door, pausing for a fraction of a second at the wall of heat and sulfur that had slammed into her as she stepped outside, sweat immediately beading on her forehead. She hadn't noticed just how hot and smelly it was outside of the slightly air-conditioned control rooms until the slight coolness and cleanish air was no longer present. She waved her wrist to shut the blast door in an attempt to buy her enough time to attempt to regain her breath, what she could of it but it did little good as Vader tore the door from its mountings within moments having recovered his saber and fixed his hand along the way. Ahsoka had always been incredibly wary of Dooku and Grievous, but they were literally nothing compared to the raw unbridled _power_ that her former Master oozed. The power was also darker than anything she ever thought she would experience, and she had been there on Mortis in the presence of the Son, the deceased Embodiment of the Dark. Somehow her Master’s darkness was eclipsing even the Son’s

*****

Thousands of light-years away, on Coruscant, in the Executive Offices of the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic situated beneath the great Senate Rotunda, a little green being was facing down the greatest threat to the galaxy in a millennium, the first Sith Master to be exposed after the establishment of the secretive Rule of Two. “If so powerful, you are” the wizened ancient Master Jedi that had regrettably escaped Order Sixty-Six spoke in his normal infuriating speech pattern, just one of many things the Sith Master hated about the smug smarmy little creature. He had enjoyed shocking the green... Thing immensely though he knew he should have just ended it while he had the chance  
“Why leave?” a second voice spoke.  
_So Obi-Wan Kenobi has survived as well... No matter_. The Sith Lord knew at the very core of his being that it was the final showdown and he, the most powerful Sith in history would not be defeated by those good for nothing do-gooders.  
“You fools” Sidious hissed, summoning his blood-red lightsaber to him with barely a twitch and the Sith Master prepared to go another round with two Jedi that had no hope of winning, not after he wiped out four of their best with ease, not counting him playing possum with Anakin and Windu

*****

In the scant few seconds that the blast door had granted Ahsoka, the Togruta had figured something out, something _scary_ but something that would be a necessity to survive. She would have to leave behind _everything_ she thought she was, step up, take a chance, become something _different_ , a thought that would have petrified her had she been given any chance to think about it. She would have to forsake the name Jedi and become something _new_ , something _purer_ , something that wasn't limited by ancient scripture. She would need love to fight for. She would need to trust herself to grow beyond what she was and into what she could become, trust herself to remain true to the cause, true to the Light. Logically, she knew what she had to do even back at the beginning of the fight with her former Master but hadn’t yet been able to let go of her _attachment_ to the old Jedi Order.

Vader stepped through what remained of the doorway with grim determination on his face after his sheer power had torn the inches thick blast door clean out of the wall, he _would_ save Padme's life and brought his lightsaber back up in order to kill his former apprentice  
_Time’s up, Tano_. The Togruta acknowledged  
“You don't know the power of the Dark Side, my young apprentice”  
“I'm not your apprentice, Vader!”  
“Then you leave me no choice”  
“Anakin”  
“Was weak”  
“You”  
“Destroyed him. Yes”

A pause of a few beats where the only sound was the popping and roaring of the lava rivers far beneath them “Then I shall _avenge_ him...”  
“Revenge is not the Jedi way” Vader growled, mildly amused. Oh how quickly things changed, how quickly Ahsoka was to abandon the old Jedi ways. She would make an exceedingly powerful Lady of the Sith  
“I am no longer a Jedi! I won't allow those silly old rules to prevent me from feeling the love I feel, for my old Master, Anakin! For my Padawan, Katooni, for the love of my life, for _Barriss_!”

Ahsoka suddenly felt immense power coursing through her. Somehow, opening herself up fully to love had allowed her to reach a new level of connection with the Force and she was no longer being battered into submission by Vader, a slow decline toward an inevitable defeat. She was fighting easier and faster and _stronger_. “I will not bow down to evil!” she let out a Force shockwave that threw Vader back and after a little bit of flailing, both in the Force and in reality, he managed to land on a pipeline of some sort instead of falling to his inevitable doom in the maw of the volcanic planet. The shockwave from Ahsoka had taken him by surprise and it showed. Ahsoka meanwhile calmly stepped out onto the pipeline in pursuit while Anakin swayed, knocked off balance by the sudden explosion of power that he should have been able to weather

“Join me, Ahsoka. Use the power that could be yours”  
“No. I am one with the Force and the Force is with me!”  
Ahsoka’s Force presence swelled and began to burn brighter. The inexplicably stronger shields around her mind dropped as the glow that she emanated into the surrounding Force became more intense. She screamed, a guttural sound of pure power, the power she was channeling igniting and flaring in a colossal and blinding flash of light that was easily visible in the Force

*****

Obi-Wan Kenobi gasped at the sheer power of the shockwave originating from the Force. He had at first thought that he had hit his head worse than he thought on his way down from one of the many senatorial pods in the rotunda but when it didn't go away, he realized something. Somehow, just somehow, he knew _destiny_ was at hand.

*****

Barriss felt it from where she stood, drenched in sweat. She was tired, overwhelmed and overheating but suddenly she felt an immensely comforting presence through the Force. It was Ahsoka. She knew that from the unique wave of love that blasted through the Force. Barriss couldn't be sure, but as she had felt it through the Inhibitors, then maybe every being in the galaxy had felt it

*****

Yoda was interrupted in the middle of striking at Sidious' lightsaber when the filthily evil being in front of him recoiled in disgust giving him a momentary advantage that he pressed against the stunned Sith who recovered only just in time to prevent the blow that would have cut him in half. “What did you do?” he hissed, “what kind of trick was that”  
“A trick it was not. Your faith in your apprentice, overexaggerated, it may be.” Yoda replied wisely  
“Impossible... He's fighting a _Padawan_ ” Sidious hissed  
“No. A Master, Young Tano is. One for some time, she has been, just too blind to see it, we were. Age matters not.” For he had always been going on about how his advanced age had never slowed him down yet he hadn't ever accepted that someone as young as Knight Tano could be as knowledgeable, as fierce, as talented as she was. _A hypocrite, I am._

*****

Anakin leaped off the pipeline followed closely by Ahsoka who continued pressing her assault. Since she had unleashed that shockwave, Ahsoka was fighting harder, faster, stronger, all while using less energy and less support from the Force. She flicked her shoto into her signature Shien hold before charging back into the battle. She did not hesitate, she trusted the love she held for those still there to love; Katooni, Obi-Wan, Padme, Barriss, she fought in the name of the love of those that she loved and respected that were no longer with her; Anakin, Luminara, Shaak Ti, and countless other Jedi she wouldn't ever get to meet, but especially those three. Ahsoka stepped forward, determined once again, her slender arms bolstered by not only the Living Force but the Unifying Force as well. “My name is Ahsoka Tano and I am the Embodiment of the Light. All darkness will be overwhelmed before me, shadows will be dissolved in the purity of the power of the Daughter”  
“Really...?” Vader scoffed, bringing his blade down on the shoto of the Knight but whereas before her arms gave way underneath the blows, they were remaining defiantly firm even against his heaviest blows and the presence in the Force that had led to both the Son and the Daughter kneeling before him  
“Really?” Ahsoka echoed, as unimpressed as Vader with the words she had uttered. _Why did you make me say that, Daughter?_ Ahsoka merely gleaned a slight amusement from the Force in reply to her query. A flash of movement revealed a convor flying in the distance, a bird that wasn't at all natural to Mustafar

Vader pressed the attack, once again pushing Ahsoka back, toward the lava and the finality of a slow death by burning alive, Ahsoka was fighting back and they were vying for supremacy though their fight had ended up getting interrupted when the collection arm Vader had intended on using to get to the other side of the lava river so he could cut Ahsoka down as she descended collapsed, spoiling his plan and forcing him to improvise as he was running out of room. He leaped toward the collection arm, determined to make Ahsoka follow him down, to put him in a position where he'd have the advantage to relieve Ahsoka of her limbs. Despite everything he still wasn’t sure if he could kill her outright, the perceived risk to Padme the only thing driving him to even consider such extremes. Had it been Yoda, or even Obi-Wan, he wouldn't have hesitated to kill but it was _Ahsoka_

Ahsoka followed him after a second or two, knowing full well that it would eventually result in a situation where it would be kill or be killed by necessity but she landed on a droid which followed the arm he was swinging from, she wasn't a fool. They didn't get another chance to exchange blows until he was forced to leap off the arm onto a collection platform to avoid plummeting to a fiery death thanks to a massive lavafall that was even higher than that of the waterfalls that plummeted from the cliff city of Theed down to the Great Grass Plains on Naboo.  
“Getting tired, Master?” Ahsoka taunted her Master but the next words out of her mouth weren't so jovial. “E chu ta” the Togruta spat, she was such a great threat to him with her newly discovered powers that, in the end, Vader had taunted Ahsoka, threatening to murder Barriss Offee to provoke her into a risky attack, successfully. Vader slashed at her as she flew through the air, slicing her lekku off effortlessly and resulting in her landing on the edge of the lava river with mundane finality and a loud crunch, multiple bones breaking as she grasped at her severed lekku in intense agony. She had managed to suppress the feeling of losing her rear lek earlier as she was in a fight to the death at the time and therefore had more important things to worry about.

From where she led in defeat, Ahsoka had heard one word that seemed to whisper to her from the force; _destiny_. Within that single word she could hear another voice one reassuring her that, no matter what happened next, she had successfully achieved her destiny, a destiny that should not have been possible, a destiny that only came into being from the ultimate sacrifice of another Ahsoka Tano.

*****

It was Sidious' moment of triumph. He had felt the last flickers of doubt expire in his apprentice and he had felt and enjoyed the crippling agony that tore through the stupid little Togruta as she had her lek sliced off by his apprentice and subsequently her hands which had dropped the sabers she had fought with for so long but even so, even as he fended off the latest combo from Kenobi and Yoda, even as he jubilated as his apprentice sliced off the Togruta’s hands he felt something stirring in the Force. The omnipresent presence he had been using as an energy field for his own personal gain, an energy field he had been using as a terrible beast of burden for decades, had disregarded its own sentience for so long. Something terrible rose up out of the very galaxy he had fought so hard to subjugate, to enslave and it only angered him further. Whereas had he stood down, the Force might have been more understanding, but as it was it convulsed once, writhing against his iron grip of control, one sickening word reaching his ears. _Destiny_. It was too late. He had _lost_

*****

“Strike me down and I will always be with you” Ahsoka growled. Despite the pain she felt from having her hands and lekku sliced off, she felt relief, her journey finally seemed to be at an end. Her struggle concluded and her chance to join with the Force granted. If he struck her down she would become one with the Force, possibly even more powerful than she was at that time as she would eventually reemerge on Mortis to oversee and maintain the new balance while she knew he would become overwhelmed with remorse at what he had done, enough remorse for him to kill himself as he wouldn't be able to face the guilt, thus ridding the galaxy of the Last Sith Lord. If she somehow struck him down, he wouldn’t survive. If she refused to join the Sith, the Light would prevail no matter what. “You were supposed to be the Chosen One, your destiny was meant to be bringing balance to the Force, not plunging it into the grasp of a Sith Lord!!”  
“Join me, _Lady Desparius_ ” the Monster wearing Anakin Skywalker's face demanded, using the name he had selected for her regardless of her earlier refusal. “Your last chance. With Palpatine gone, as he will be momentarily, we can rule the galaxy. Together. Son and Daughter. Vader and Desparius. The way it was always meant to be”  
“I can't. I'm sorry. I just wouldn't be being true to myself if I fell to the Dark Side, I’m sorry Anakin” she whispered even as her legs were scorched unforgivingly by the flames that tore up her form-fitting pants from where she had landed, too close to the lava river. Ahsoka could barely feel it, whether it was the injuries she guessed she had from being slammed into the ground or whether it was a mercy from the Force for being the instrument of its will, she did not know.  
“Very Well, in that case, _Snips_...” He spat her nickname with a voice filled with venom and the utter overwhelming rage of a Sith Lord. “You. Will. _Die_!!” what had been Anakin screamed. The quick death offered to her by lightsaber would certainly be an easier death than the one the lava promised and she couldn't do much except watch, she had lost both her hands in the closing moments of their duel and therefore couldn't intercept what was going to be a killing blow

Ahsoka watched the Dark Lord lift his blue lightsaber blade to bring it down, a lightsaber blade that was turning red before her very eyes so strong was his connection to the Dark Side, so strong was his rage, to cut her head off or slice her into two, her own iron will and radiant light that staved off almost all the negative side effects of the Dark Side nexus they were stood on both seemingly useless against the raw fury of a Sith Lord, of a Fallen Chosen One. Realizing that she was essentially looking at the last few seconds of her life she sent a silent apology to her Padawan and to Barriss. The first was a vague feeling of regret and remorse, the latter a fully formed apology. She didn't want to scare Katooni so she was deliberately vague, knowing that she'd get the feeling once she removed the Force inhibitors, when the whole sad story had come to a conclusion

The Sith Lord suddenly spluttered and gulped a few times, startling Ahsoka out of her semi-meditative state. She had been prepared to become one with the Force but to her shock the Sith Lord’s crimson lightsaber disengaged before he could bring it down on her and fell to the ash-covered ground with a muffled thud and the Sith Lord himself keeled over in two different directions, his upper body sliding to the left only to be caught by his former apprentice and his legs and lower trunk falling in the opposite direction even as she was pulled further away from the lava and the flames that had reached her torso were extinguished by a very powerful wave of Force energy coming from somewhere over her shoulder. Her legs were badly burned but she was still alive and could still hardly feel the burns. Ahsoka’s eyes followed the path that Darth Vader's body was taking and she managed to catch him with a grunt, the dude was _heavy_. She had rolled to intercept his fall and he had landed on her, crushing her chest somewhat, her already bruised, cracked ribs dislodged even further

“Ah-Ahsoka?” the Darth wheezed. The angry sulfuric yellow fading back into the ocean blues as he gazed into the green eyes of his former apprentice. He was quickly filled by guilt and concern. He knew what Ahsoka's presence there meant. She had been sent to defeat him, and he had defeated her.  
“I'm here, Skyguy” Ahsoka reassured with a gentle smile, holding the former Jedi with the stumps of arms that had once ended with her hands. She would have wrapped her arms around him but couldn’t do so, not with one arm mostly missing and the other hand also was gone.  
“I... I hurt you” he realized, with the shroud of the Dark Side lifted, he could see the devastation he had wrought. He had deprived her of her hands and also caused her what would inevitably be extreme agony when she had gotten over what he presumed to be the shock of being burned by the lava. “Thank you, whoever stopped me killing her” he muttered a prayer to whoever it was and turned his head weakly to face whoever it was. He could sense their steadfast presence but couldn't tell who it was and he knew his time was running out

“You're welcome” came the startling response in a familiar voice. It was Barriss Offee. He wasn't sure how or why Barriss was there but he was glad she was. She had saved Ahsoka’s life, had used the Force inhibitors that were no longer on her arms but were on the ground in front of her, discarded, to sneak up on him while he was focused on Ahsoka to the exclusion of all else and accordingly he hadn't noticed her until it was too late, until she had cut him in half and discarded the Inhibitors. She had done what he should have done, protected her. She had gotten over everything that had happened to her over the course of the war, and everything that had afflicted her.  
“Thank you, Barriss Offee” he wheezed, knowing he was mortally wounded. He understood the connection that she and his former Padawan had, he truly loved Padme in the same way they loved each other but he hadn't always approved of it, not with how close the Mirialan Padawan had gotten to falling to the Dark Side forever. He had to admit though, that the Mirialan had shown strength of character and an unwavering love toward his Padawan that would never die so perhaps she wasn't so bad after all

*****

“What... No... Impossible!!” The Sith Master hissed. He had felt the Dark Side draining from his new apprentice. He had been so sure... So confident... But all his plans were turning to ash around him. Something has changed and no doubt that vile Jedi schutta Tano had something to do with it!!

He didn't sense the sharp bolt traveling toward him until it was too late. A woman that had hidden in the shadows had watched the fight unfold and once the Sith had been distracted, she had shot at him with an old fashioned crossbow, puncturing his chest where the heart would have been had he not been sustained by pure spite. The former Sith Lord shrieked and wailed in agony, writhing from the pain and in his death throes. The woman disappeared through the maze of corridors in the Senate Building before the Jedi even realized what was going on, she hadn't ever been given a chance to be something more so had taken the time to become more by herself, to learn what she could. She had seen two Jedi fighting someone with a red blade and, remembering Dooku and Maul, both of whom tended to kill indiscriminately while they wielded red lightsabers, she had chosen to intervene. The kill wouldn't give her any riches as a Bounty Hunter but... She might be able to sleep better at night. She owed that particular Sith Lord a lot of pain anyway

*****

Anakin Skywalker wheezed. Barriss Offee’s lightsaber strike had caused so much damage and he knew he only had a limited amount of time before he would die, he no longer held any hope of becoming one with the Force. “Ahsoka” he wheezed  
“I'm here, Skyguy” Ahsoka reassured while holding him close as his body slowly shut down. “You always were like a father to me, even if you acted more like an annoying brother sometimes”  
“I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry for what I did to you. I know I will never earn your respect back but you have to know how proud I am... How... Sorry... I... Am” with those last few words, Anakin Skywalker finally passed away.

Ahsoka whimpered, holding the body of her Master closer for a few moments, unable to cry as the tears evaporated immediately. “Barriss... Can you put Skyguy in the lava? If that Sith survives, I don't want him desecrating his body anymore than he already has”  
“Of course, Ahsoka” Barriss leaned over, pecking the young Togruta’s lips. “You stupid little fekking... Ugh!! _Schutta_!!” Barriss exclaimed, punching the Togruta on the shoulder. “You could've karking died, you little _idiot_!!”  
_That... Kinda was the idea_. Ahsoka thought. She wisely chose not to voice that thought. Instead of having her own life flash before her eyes, she had instead had another life flash before her eyes, a life of subterfuge, a life of hiding, of red sabers clashing with white ones, of pain and agony. In the moments before Anakin was cut down by a Barriss Offee who hadn’t been visible in the Force, Ahsoka learned of what could have been and how it was prevented. “Thank you, _Fulcrum_ ”

Barriss froze at the words, ending up dropping the two halves of Vader unceremoniously into the lava instead of the dignified slow descent she would’ve preferred to have given, despite what the evil man had done to Ahsoka, the Togruta still loved her former Master after all. She returned to Ahsoka's side with the Knight’s sabers which Ahsoka threw into the lava with the Force with little to no hesitation. The Togruta didn't want to keep the reminder of what she had been forced to do and Barriss debated bringing _Fulcrum_ up, but eventually decided against it. Ahsoka couldn't possibly _know_ , could she? Regardless of whether she _knew_ or not, Barriss kissed the dry, chapped lips of the Togruta, breathed in the familiar smell of the love of her life, as mixed in with the smell of burned flesh and ash as it was and then pulled her into a bridal carry to head back toward Padme’s ship. “I love you, 'Soka.” Barriss finally admitted. _At long last, I admit to it. Only almost took me losing her_  
“I love you too, 'Riss” Ahsoka mumbled, falling back into blissful unconsciousness

*****

It was several days after the conclusion of the Battles of the Heroes and merely a week after the Battle of Coruscant, Palpatine had been defeated by two Masters he considered to be less than vermin, with a little help from a Bounty Hunter they hadn't yet located, they knew they were unlikely to find her after that amount of time and what had been Darth Vader had been defeated by the youngest Knight in the history of the Order. The young Togruta in question was sat in a hoverchair, her legs still wrapped in bacta bandages from the severe burns she had obtained, what was left of her left arm rested on the armrest of the hoverchair while her right hung uselessly, she was scheduled to be getting prosthetics as soon as they were done discussing the _Jedi_ things they had to discuss. They were discussing Luke and Leia Skywalker, Padme had died in childbirth, the nightmare that Anakin had endured a self-fulfilling prophecy that he himself had caused. Had Ahsoka been there, she might have been able to help the mother, but she was in a bacta tank, recovering from her own multitude of injuries that she had gotten in the line of duty as Padme had been declared healthy mere hours before she became one with the Force. Much to everyone's surprise, Yoda had sensed the Togruta's presence the moment Padme’s ship came out of hyperspace over Coruscant and had taken a few moments alone with the Togruta once she had been placed in a full bacta immersion. He had kept his conclusions private, though Obi-Wan had asked.

“You are their only living relative, Ahsoka, you should take them.” Master Obi-Wan, only one of two surviving members of the Jedi High Council spoke softly. He looked out from Padme Amidala’s old apartment, the temporary home of the two remaining councilors, _it would be what Padme would have wanted_. The other surviving Jedi that had returned were holed up in various apartments in the immediate area but both of Padme's parents had insisted that Ahsoka used Padme’s apartment for as long as she needed it and since there were multiple bedrooms, she invited Yoda and Obi-Wan along with her. Barriss never seemed to be too far from Ahsoka's side, often giving and receiving comforting touches between them  
“Let these Younglings suffer we must not. Wrong it would be to do so. Too few Jedi there are to risk the Temple. Dark Side, contaminated it, it has”  
“Fine, I guess I have no choice.” Ahsoka nodded, she hadn't expected to be responsible for the twins when she returned with a pregnant Padme. “Katooni, what do you want to do?”  
“Come with you, Master” the Tholothian replied immediately and without hesitation  
“And you, Barriss?”  
“I’d like to come with you too, Knight Tano” Barriss replied eagerly

“Ahem.” Yoda interrupted. “Did us a great service young Knight Tano did, therefore a Master I have decided to make her, offer her a place on this Council we also do, when she returns” he paused and appraised Barriss. “Agree with young Offee going with you, I cannot. An apprentice you have, young Tano” _One that hasn’t been tainted by the Dark Side_  
“Yeah well, who else am I supposed to be able to trust with Barriss’ safety?” The Togruta snipped. “For all I know you'll just try to wipe her memories or something the moment I go into hyperspace with Katooni and the twins.” _Won’t be the first time, remember Revan? Not to mention Juzia_ , she recalled the new name the Council had given Barriss after wiping her memory in what became a dead timeline. “With all due respect, Master, she's coming with me.”  
“Your right as her guardian, that is. But grant her the rank of Knight, we cannot. Too early it is.”  
_You little..._ Ahsoka began thinking, preparing to state it out loud if she had to. Barriss had been the one to save her after all! She had _earned_ her Knighthood!  
“I understand, Master” Barriss _was_ deeply hurt by the Jedi's lack of faith in her but she had no choice but to agree that she had done it to herself  
“Very well, decided it is. Master Tano, take Padawan Katooni and Padawan Offee to Naboo, you will. Raise the Skywalker twins there, you must. Your Padawans, these two are” Yoda indicated the Mirialan and the Tholothian. It was likely that experienced Masters would need to take more than one Padawan to restore their numbers so he may as well have started allowing it sooner rather than later. Knights would remain limited to one Padawan due to their inexperience  
“Yes, Master”  
“Also pay all your medical bills, the Order will.” Ahsoka was going to need extensive surgeries on her legs because of the burns, and newly cloned lekku. She had also been offered a pioneering new medical procedure in which her arms would be regrown. Since it was a new technique willingly offered by Kamino as part of the reparations they had to provide for their part in Order Sixty-Six and the subsequent destabilization of the entire galaxy, Ahsoka would have to make do with robotic prosthetics for a while at least. The Kaminoans had offered the solution to the new Interim Chancellor, Bail Organa as everyone had heard the story about Ahsoka’s heroic struggle with a hitherto unnamed Sith Lord and the new Prime Minister of Kamino had been eager to prove he was sincere in reparations else the Kaminoans would almost certainly be shut down  
“Thank you, Master”  
“Go, you should. Get your arms fixed up and prepare to leave, it is time to” the ancient being smiled benevolently at the Togruta who would have, in her youth, done anything to earn that smile but with everything she knew of both the timeline she had created with _Fulcrum's_ help and the one that no longer existed, she couldn't help but worry about just how the wisest Master of them all had led them to their own destruction. She no longer felt the smile was as benevolent or as comforting as he believed it to be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's the longest thing I've ever written, that's the end of the line for the main storyline, possibly.
> 
> There's a planned epilogue which may or may not become another chapter, I don't know.  
> Current plan is it'll be an anthology of post-Mustafar events but that might change based on how much I write


End file.
